


Date Me!

by radkoko



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Idols, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Found Family, M/M, Secret Crush, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:08:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23748874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radkoko/pseuds/radkoko
Summary: Iruka's life is turned upside down when fans of Naruto, his brother who is the lead singer of a famous band, starts to think that they're dating. He goes along with the lies until he starts getting harassed by the fans. Iruka gets lost on how to deal with everything until his boss offers to date him to keep the fans away.Of course it doesn't help that he's always had a little bit of a crush on his boss...
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 19
Kudos: 225
Collections: KakaIru Big Bang 2020





	1. Chapter 1

"Dating?!" Iruka's voice echoes through the apartment. He threw the tabloid paper down on the couch next to where Naruto sat solely focused on the video game he was playing. Iruka moved between him and the screen to try and direct Naruto's attention towards him.

"Calm down Iruka, it's really not that big of a deal," Naruto replied as he tried to lean around Iruka's frame to continue playing.

Iruka growled and grabbed the remote from its spot on the coffee table, turning towards the TV and pressing the power button so he could no longer be ignored. He needed Naruto's undivided attention for this conversation.

"Naruto..." Iruka's voice came out in a fake calm. Turning towards him, Naruto's eyes were wide, as they both knew Iruka's tone all too well.

"Yes?" Naruto's voice almost squeaked out the question. He had put down his controller and inched towards the edge of the couch as if ready to bolt based on what Iruka said next.

"Would you like to inform me of exactly why the tabloids think that we are dating?" Iruka's voice oozed with a sickly sweet sound, a tone that often smoothed the way for the yelling that almost always followed.

"I...they..." Naruto hesitated, "We're trying to protect Hinata..."

The name stopped Iruka's anger as if turning it instantly to sympathy. "Protect Hinata from what?" Iruka was concerned for the girl's safety.

"Protect her from the fans..."

Iruka sighed. Naruto's life was really not that easy. He was the singer of a popular band, which led to fangirls everywhere and paparazzi following his every move.

"They saw us that day I told you about proposing to Hinata. Tsunade thinks my fans assume we're dating because of how close we are, and you were hugging and crying a lot that day..." Naruto explained with the ease of someone who’d been heavily coached on what to tell him.

Iruka sighed again, although this time it was from frustration not sympathy. If Tsunade was involved, this was serious. Tsunade had been Naruto's manager for years, and had always been aware of what the media reported on Kitsune and more specifically, on Naruto. All in all, if Tsunade was aware of the situation, that meant she had a plan for exactly how she wanted it to play out.

"What does she want?" Iruka caved. Naruto had looked guilty from the moment he’d said Tsunade's name. He had never been great at hiding his thoughts and emotions from anyone, especially Iruka.

"She thinks it's a good idea to let them think we are dating until the wedding." Iruka’s jaw dropped through the floor.

"What? Naruto...how could you agree to that!? That's nearly two months away!" Iruka couldn't piece it all together. "I have so many questions I don't even know how to start."

"Iruka, we've worked really hard to keep my connection to Hinata quiet. Neither of our fans are going to like the fact that we're dating, so it just seemed better to wait until after we're married to say anything."

"But you think the fans are going to be ok with you dating some random guy?" Iruka asked, "Not to mention that we're brothers-" Iruka stopped, he couldn't really get past that part. The thought that thousands of people would start thinking he was dating his brother almost made him nauseous.

"They don't know anything about us. Besides it's not like I haven't dated guys before..." Naruto's eyes went dark at the topic. Iruka wished he could wipe away Naruto’s memories of his last boyfriend from his head.

Iruka sat down on the couch next to Naruto, tired of standing over him like they were in a fight. "Naruto, I just don't know..." he grabbed for Naruto's hand.

"Please Iruka..." Naruto squeezed his hand and looked at him; his bright blue eyes piercing Iruka's heart as always. "We really need to keep the news about me and Hinata quiet for a little longer or I might lose her. And I trust you."

Iruka couldn't say no.

"Fine," Iruka conceded.

Naruto tackled him in a hug, which almost sent them hurtling off the couch. "Iruka, I love you, you're seriously the best big brother anyone could ask for!"

Iruka rolled his eyes and just hugged Naruto back. This had to be the worst decision he had ever made.

* * *

By the time Iruka made it back to his own apartment it was late, but that didn't stop him from wanting to understand what he'd gotten himself into.

The photograph that had been in the tabloids had to be from two or three months ago, so he was wondering what had taken them so long to make it public.

Iruka booted up his computer and started to look for any information he could find on the subject. The gossip magazines and newspapers were the places that would have the most complete information.

**Lead Singer of Kitsune seen with a new beau?**   
_Naruto Uzumaki, the lead singer of the band Kitsune has been seen around down with a new love interest._

Iruka cringed at the thought.

Each article he read had almost the exact same story, they barely even put their own personality into the writing.

According to them, Naruto had found a new boyfriend, a cute no name brown hair man that "captured his heart". It was a great triumph of love after the disappearance of his previous boyfriend, Sasuke from rival band, Akatsuki, who after their break up had disappeared out of the music scene. Naruto and his new boyfriend had first been seen together about two months ago, which is the time of the photograph. They had been trying to keep their relationship quieter since the relationship was new, and his significant other was not from the music world.

All of the photos were from the same night as the tabloid paper had taken their photo. It was the night that Naruto told Iruka that he'd proposed to Hinata. Many photos taken all from different angles made it look as though it had been multiple nights, which Iruka was sure only helped sell the story.

Iruka remembered that night. He'd been a bit skeptical about the engagement because of how short a time they'd been dating.

_"Naruto you guys haven't been together that long, are you sure you're ready?" Iruka asked over their usual ramen dinner._

_"I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's her. She's definitely the one." The sparkle in Naruto's eye wasn't all that uncommon, but Iruka could see the assuredness behind his statement. "I can feel it Iruka. When you know, you know." His eyes softened a bit, a beautiful rare emotion that Naruto didn't show many people._

_Iruka hoped to someday know what Naruto knew in that moment. Having that one person who was your other half. A tear rolled down his cheek, he really wasn't used to Naruto being so prophetic._

_"Hey, no crying!" Naruto yelled._

_"I'm not..." Iruka tried to wipe away the tear, but he started laughing at how happy he was for Naruto. He pulled Naruto into a hug, which was a little harder now that he'd grown bigger than Iruka, regardless he'd always be Iruka's little brother._

Iruka looked at his computer and sighed. It was time to do something he'd sworn he would never do. Typing Kitsune and Fansite into the search bar Iruka braced himself for what he would find after he pressed the enter key.

A few dozen links populated his page, and Iruka hesitated to press any. He'd made the choice when Naruto and Kitsune had started getting popular that he would never look at fansites for their band. It wasn't about shaming any of the people that loved the band and the members, it was more that they scared Iruka. He'd seen what kind of crazy information they could dig up on idols, and he'd see what lengths people would go to just for a picture or a hand touch from the famous.

Iruka clicked through the first few sites, and found they were mostly filled with the same pictures from that dinner. In addition they had found a few other photos from before or after one of Naruto's shows. The one that really surprised him was a photo of him cheering Kitsune on from the wings of a stage. He had a special VIP pass that Naruto and Tsunade made so that he could go to any show he wanted to with that pass. As Naruto's only family, and with most of his friends making up the band, nobody minded that Iruka would be the one to show up all the time when they were in town.

When Iruka opened the next site he startled. This one showed what fansites could be. This one had photos of Naruto with a shadowed figure holding hands. Iruka could only assume these were photos of Naruto and Hinata since he knew it wasn't him. Hinata was close to his height with heels, but still noticeably shorter to anyone who was paying attention. If Tsunade had seen these photos, Iruka wouldn't be surprised if she'd actually pointed the tabloids towards him to keep them looking in a completely opposite direction.

He kept scrolling through the latest post that was all about this mysterious boyfriend of Naruto's, and came to some photos of him glaring at Sasuke from the side of a concert. This person hypothesized that it was actually him that had chased Sasuke away, which Iruka only wished was true.

Naruto had been so enamored with Sasuke that he could never see the dark side. Sasuke had his own family troubles and it felt like Naruto was the only one trying to help Sasuke even at his own detriment. No, Sasuke had managed to just drop off the grid without telling anyone where he'd gone. Naruto had at least gotten a note saying goodbye, but that was about all it said.

A notification pinged the website telling everyone that was currently online that a new post had been added. Iruka was over reliving the memories so he thought he'd check out what had been newly posted, but when the page reloaded he froze. There were brand new photos of him walking out of Naruto's apartment building just a few hours ago. This was the first caption that listed his name.

Even with all the digging up of old photos none of the tabloids or other sites had yet to list him as more than a mysterious boyfriend, and now with this one site his name was out there. Within seconds the website pinged again with another update and the chat on the side started scrolling faster than he could keep up with.

Iruka closed his laptop and walked away.

"I can't do this..." he whispered to himself.

He was pacing around his apartment when a photo on the wall caught his eye. It was one from when he was much younger, where he held Naruto on his lap and Naruto's parents were on either side of them hugging them with these huge smiles. The photo had been taken as some cheesy family photo studio, but it was one of the only photos he had from that happy time.

His and Naruto's families had been close, he remembered them being around each other as if they'd been related. Iruka even remembered the day Naruto had been born, this tiny little baby with his golden blonde hair just like his father. They grew up like cousins for those first few years, until the night his parents died. The night of that tragedy Iruka was only sixteen years old and without question Minato and Kushina decided that they would take care of him as if he were their own. Naruto was young, but adapted to the situation as if Iruka had always been his big brother. They were one happy family.

It was a few years later that Minato and Kushina died, leaving Naruto and Iruka alone. Iruka took care of Naruto just as they had taken care of him. He looked at the photo again. It was one of his favorites because it was the moment when he'd understood that they were his second family, and that he was more than just a third wheel to their little family that already existed.

He looked at Naruto's smile, it was one that had waned over the years between his parent's death and Sasuke's disappearance. Recently it had started coming back thanks to Hinata. It was a smile that brightened everyone's day.

That smile, Naruto's smile was worth it. Iruka could handle these fans just to keep that smile on Naruto's face.

What was two months of his non-existent love life to help his brother anyway?

* * *

Iruka was late.

He was never late.

The only thing Iruka could hope for as he ran towards work was that maybe he'd manage to make it there before his boss. Iruka ignored the tingling feeling that someone was watching him, since it would only delay him further.

He rushed into the building and onto an open elevator, thanking whomever was up in the heavens for the one saving grace. It wasn't until the doors closed and someone spoke that Iruka realized it wasn't heaven.

"This is unusual..." a smooth deep voice spoke. It wasn't just someone, it was his boss, and now he was now stuck in an elevator with him as they slowly ascended to their floor.

"Good morning Kakashi," Iruka greeted the other man in the elevator.

"I thought you were the picture of punctuality," Kakashi teased him. "What caused this?"

Iruka wasn't ready to say 'I couldn't sleep because my brother's fangirls were talking about me' so he came up with an excuse that seemed logical enough. "My alarm got mixed up and went off later than I expected.”

"Well, best to double check your alarms in the future. I hope you also remembered that we've got the board members coming in for a meeting at nine sharp. They always like the treats you set up for them."

Iruka hadn't remembered. There was a part of him that wondered if Kakashi had said it just to make sure he didn't forget, but that seemed so unlike the stoic man.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened letting them both off at their floor. Kakashi led the way to his office and where Iruka's desk sat out in front of it. The whole office watched them walk together, and Iruka felt as if he was being reprimanded by a teacher the way that everyone watched and stared.

Iruka couldn't spend much time caring about what his coworkers thought about his late arrival today, he had to focus on getting their meeting room ready for the board members. There was only about 30 minutes left before they would arrive and since they decided whether the company continued to operate or not it was really best to keep on their good side with a healthy amount of coffee and snacks.

The best place for pastries and donuts was the little corner store across the street from their building. Iruka grabbed a decent selection of the sweets as well as some fruit for the health conscious and hauled the goods back upstairs to the office. He set up a platter in the center of the meeting room and filled carafes full with coffee for the guests. Iruka eyed the warm liquid jealous and desperate for his own cup, but had duties to fulfill first.

Greeting the board members was part of his job. He made sure they were all happy and settled before he bowed out to start up on his own work for the morning. He poured himself a fresh cup of the strongest coffee that was available in an effort to d jumpstart his day, but it barely made a dent in how tired he felt. It was going to take a lot more than one cup to help him get through the day.

Iruka started on his own tasks; scheduling meetings, answering emails, and doing whatever else needed to be done to keep all his coworkers moving through their own work. It didn't take long for his night of almost no sleep to start catching up with him.

As soon as he'd left his computer the night before Iruka went to bed, but his mind couldn't let go of the crazy idea that the tabloids thought he was dating Naruto, and that he was willing to let them continue to think that was the case. If he was being truly honest it wasn't the tabloids that he was bothered by. It was the fans. The same fans that had managed to dig up information on him from a couple of blurry photos. The person that had been waiting outside of Naruto's apartment building to capture more photos of him.

It worried Iruka to think that Naruto dealt with this all the time. It wasn't just at concerts or when he was doing events, but these fans followed him home. How could Iruka protect his little brother from all of this craziness?

"-ruka." Iruka jumped at the sound cutting through his thoughts. He looked up to see Kakashi eyeing him over his monitor.

"Are you ok?" his boss asked, Iruka wasn't sure if he was imagining the concern that he heard in Kakashi's voice.

"Huh?" Iruka didn't quite process the question.

"Are you ok?" Kakashi questioned him, this time with more accusation. That was closer to the cold calculating boss he was used to.

"I'm fine. What can I do for you?" he replied with a smile, trying to ignore the stab he felt from Kakashi's piercing eyes.

Kakashi looked back towards the meeting room where the board members were chatting and heading out of their office. "I wanted to let you know we're all done in there." Kakashi pointed towards the room for clarification as if Iruka needed the help understanding which room he was talking about.

Iruka nodded and started towards the room, but was stopped by Kakashi cleaning his throat as if to get his attention. "Also thanks for the donuts, you always manage to get my favorites," Kakashi held up half a donut that he must have been nibbling on throughout the meeting.

Iruka gave Kakashi another nod and walked towards the meeting room hoping that the blush spreading across his face waited until after he'd turned away from Kakashi. Yes, Iruka often snuck Kakashi's favorite foods in where he could. It was after all, part of his job to keep Kakashi happy. He wasn't willing to admit, especially to himself, that it might have something to do with the small...tiny crush Iruka had on his boss. Kakashi was strikingly handsome, which almost everyone could agree about, but it was the moments when he thanked Iruka that it just sent a ping to his heart.

Returning his focus to the job at hand, Iruka placed the remaining treats in the kitchen where people would happily finish off the rest of the baked goods, and went to wipe down everything that had sugar all over it.

The rest of his day was fairly normal, comprising of the regular shuffling of meetings here or there because someone couldn't make it on time - or having to help staff members mediate their issues because they couldn't handle doing it on their own. It was nothing more than an average day's work.

Before heading out for the night Iruka knocked on the frame of Kakashi's open door, "Need anything before I head out?"

Kakashi may act like a lazy CEO to most people but Iruka was one of the few who knew how hard he worked. He was always one of the last people in the office and the amount of papers on Iruka's desk the next morning told him Kakashi’s time in office after hours wasn’t just for show.

Kakashi looked up from his computer and shook his head, "I'm good. You should make sure to get some sleep tonight."

Iruka bit his lip, was it really that obvious? "I'll try to... Have a good night."

Kakashi nodded and mumbled a 'night' in return as Iruka turned back towards his own desk.

Iruka packed up his stuff and started his walk home. After he got this job he'd chosen this apartment not only for the cost, but because he was within walking distance to both his job and to Naruto's apartment. Naruto had insisted Iruka live with him so he could pay Iruka back for taking care of him while Iruka had been going through college, but Iruka wouldn't have any of it. They were both fiercely stubborn, but Iruka usually won these types of arguments. He'd stayed with Naruto long enough to find his own place, but no longer.

Walking back was usually a peaceful way for Iruka to wind down for the evening, but something was off tonight. He'd felt the same feeling that morning as he ran to work, but now that he was alone it was stronger. More niggling now that he had time to focus on it.

Looking around Iruka saw nothing out of the ordinary, even though he felt like someone had to be following him.

"There's nobody there," he muttered under his breath, chastising himself for his paranoia. 'I just need more sleep' Iruka rationalized to himself and continued on his way.

As soon as he walked through his door, Iruka threw off his shoes and collapsed on his bed. He'd really only been planning on taking a nap before dinner, but when he woke up it was morning. The barest hints of sunlight were starting to filter through his windows, and his stomach ached from him forgetting to eat before sleeping.

Iruka grabbed himself a bowl of cereal, which was about the only food that he was proficient enough to make. It wouldn't be enough, but it would help him stave off the hunger until he could get something quick to eat on the way to work. He sat himself down in front of his computer and started to check in on things. There was almost never enough time for him to check through his email, facebook, and the news in the morning, but waking up early let him catch up on what he'd missed from yesterday.

After checking his email, and scrolling through facebook Iruka opened up reddit. It was easy to get lost in it, but he found that it was also an easy way to catch up on the news and current events that were going on. It let him decide what topics to follow from politics to local news, and even caught a glimpse of what was happening in Naruto's world. He didn't need most of that from reddit since he tried to keep up with Naruto himself, but he liked seeing when there was interesting news like their latest album breaking big time records for sales.

As he scrolled through the almost endless posts, one particular one caught his eye.

**More info on Naruto's latest love interest!!!**

He was probably going to regret this, but Iruka's curiosity got the best of him. When the link redirected him to a fansite Iruka almost dropped his bowl.

The site was filled with pictures of him from yesterday. There was him running to the office because he was late yesterday morning, and a couple taken throughout the day from when he went to grab food for the investors, his lunch break, and even his afternoon coffee pick-me-up. His stomach turned sour when he saw the ones from his walk home last night. He had been followed. The question now was how they'd been able to hide from him, and how close they had to be to get all these photos of him.

Comments were flying everywhere as girls, well he assumed girls, were arguing over whether he or Sasuke were hotter. Another few were making it a big deal over the fact that he was almost ten years older than Naruto. The only thing that he didn't see was anyone upset that he was male. Naruto had been fairly open about most of his relationships and his partners had always ranged in gender. At least they weren't hating him for stealing Naruto and turning him to the other side. Iruka could also see that for the most part they seemed to approve of him. For now...

Iruka caught the time and realized he would need to get ready for work now if he didn't want a repeat of yesterday. He sped through the shower and dressing so that he'd had a chance to stop for something on the way into work.

Just a block away from his place was one of his favorite coffee shops. He ordered himself coffee and a sandwich and ordered a second coffee for Kakashi. He occasionally got Kakashi coffee in the morning, and this time would be a silent thank you for not reprimanding him over yesterday morning.

As he waited for his food and drinks, he overheard a couple of girls giggling and practically squealing between themselves. When he looked over he saw them taking photos of each other, but the phone didn't seem to be focused quite right. He'd swear they were doing a classic 'just taking a selfie' move to get a few snapshots in his direction.

The barista called out his name and he grabbed the coffee so he could get out of there. He wasn't too happy that he'd have to start avoiding his favorite coffee place because there were fans hanging out there. Honestly the whole thing was still a bit unsettling, but he could manage a few giggling teenage girls as long as he avoided the news sites.

Iruka got into the office and placed the coffee for Kakashi on his desk before diving into his own work. He was far more productive today than he had been the previous day but that meant, by early afternoon, he’d run out of things to do. Iruka had never really been one for goofing off when he had no work, so when someone came telling him the printer had run out of ink Iruka jumped up to head to the store. It was only a few blocks away and instead of having to wait for it to be delivered, he wanted to feel useful and solve the issue immediately. Besides, an afternoon walk never did anybody harm.

He buttoned up his sweater, it had started to become chilly even in the afternoons, and headed out on his way. He walked the three blocks, picked up the needed toner and a few extras that were low and headed back. It wasn't until he was halfway back that he realized that there was a small group of girls following him.

Iruka started to pick up speed and tried not to make it obvious until he got within sight of his office building. As soon as the building was in sight, he picked up his pace to a jog, and almost ran face first into another group of girls waiting outside the front doors.

"There, isn't that him?" one of the girls pointed him out to the group. Iruka froze. The two groups converged and crowded around him, asking questions, yelling on top of each other hoping to be heard and get answers.

"What's Naruto like?"  
"When did you start dating?"  
"How did you meet?"  
"Ohh my god, you're so cute together!"  
"Take your hair down."

Iruka could barely process what was being said, and they all kept stepping closer until they could touch him. They started grabbing at him like he was some saint, and they would be blessed if they touched him. They pulled at his sweater, and his hair until it was loose. It wasn't long until he felt like he couldn't breathe and didn't know what to do. There were too many of them to just push through the crowd, and even though he was taller than most of them he felt like he was being pulled down into the sea.

"Clear a path!" a male voice yelled as Iruka saw a pair of security guards from the building pushing through the girls towards him. Someone managed to grab him to pull him away from the mob and into the office building where the girls would be unable to enter without a badge. His savior continued to walk him away from the entrance to a side area that had a set of chairs for guests to wait before someone came down to escort them into the rest of the building. Iruka dropped down into a chair and just tried to focus on being able to breathe again.

A face appeared in front of him as he tried to focus on what had just happened. [Kakashi squatted in front of him, brow furrowed as they stared at each other.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23778391)

"...m an idiot..." Iruka muttered to himself, still a little unfocused thinking about what had gotten him here.

"Sorry...did you prefer the mob?" Kakashi questioned his sanity.

"What?!" Iruka startled looking around, "No-I-thats-"

"Are you ok?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka tried to steady his breathing. He couldn't answer. The windowed building let him watch as the girls were being asked to leave by the security guards, obvious disappointment on their faces.

"Iruka.." Kakashi's voice sounded more like a warning than concern.

"I'm fine."

"Tell me what happened," Kakashi demanded as if he were a police officer taking Iruka's statement for a report.

Iruka opened his mouth but nothing came out. How could he ever explain this situation to anyone, especially his boss. It's not like most people had famous siblings, and having a famous sibling who's fans thought you were dating was its own crazy circumstance.

"Iruka..." Kakashi called to him, his voice softened from his last inquiry. A hand came up to tuck a lock of his now loose hair behind his ear. "Can you tell me what's going on?"

Iruka sighed, running a hand through his hair to push it out of his face; He wasn't used to it being loose around other people. "I'm an idiot," Iruka started, Kakashi looked at him with concern as if he'd gone crazy, but then seemed to understand that it was Iruka trying to repeat what he'd muttered before. "My brother is kind of famous and his fans got the impression that we're dating, thus," Iruka held his hand out to indicate the girls that the guards were still trying to get to leave, "that."

Kakashi eyed him with curiosity, "Shouldn't they know you're siblings?"

"Well, we're not blood related. His parents took me in when mine passed away." Iruka didn't really want to delve into that with his boss. The man wasn't known for his sympathy, and Iruka didn't want his pity.

"And they don't know that?"

"I guess not..." Iruka had been wondering the same thing. Seeing how detailed the fans were about finding things out about him and Naruto from pictures to his name, he wasn't sure how they hadn't found those details.

"Why would you let them think that then?" Kakashi's response seemed like the obvious one, and Iruka was still chiding himself for not pushing harder.

"He asked me to just let it be."

"Why?"

"I can't-" Iruka cut himself off. While he knew Kakashi was almost certainly disinterested in the gossip of celebrities, he just couldn't tell anyone why he'd promised this to Naruto. It would still sound outrageous if he tried to explain it. "I just can't. I promised him. He's my brother."

Kakashi shook his head at Iruka, "You shouldn't have to sacrifice yourself for someone else." He stood up from where he'd been squatting and stared down at Iruka with crossed arms.

Iruka bit his tongue, desperately wanting to snap back at Kakashi that he couldn't possibly understand what it meant to do something for your loved ones. He knew it'd be completely inappropriate, and would honestly rather be talking about anything else.

"You could date me." The words slipped out of Kakashi's mouth and Iruka was stunned.

"What?" he questioned, not sure if Kakashi had really said them, or it had just been his imagination.

"Pretend to date me," Kakashi said explaining himself, "wouldn't the fans just naturally disperse if they realized it was a mistake?"

"I don't think you understand how these fans work." Iruka questioned Kakashi's logic, "Right now they at least like me, but if they see me out with someone else, they're going to think I'm a cheater. I'd also have to cut off contact with my brother or the rumors would probably start all over again."

"It might be enough to stop them from harassing you while you should be working."

Iruka could feel his anger rising. Had Kakashi really just made a big deal over this because he was missing work? And here Iruka had been starting to think he was actually worried about him.

"If this is about them keeping me from work, then forget about it. I'll make sure it's not an issue." Iruka growled, "Now I'm going to go back to work, since that seems to be what's important to you, and fix the printer. Then I can pretend that none of this ever happened."

Iruka stomped off towards the elevator hoping to leave Kakashi there, but with each second it took for the elevator to appear he was sure that Kakashi would come around the corner any minute.

When the elevator dinged Kakashi walked past him into it and stared at him. Iruka was sure that it was Kakashi waiting to see what he'd do, whether he'd get on the elevator, wait for the next one, or even climb the stairs, but since they were on the 20th floor Iruka was going to avoid the last one. He now just had to choose whether he'd let Kakashi win and get back to the office first, or he'd deal with the awkwardness of sitting in the elevator with Kakashi as it made its way upwards.

Iruka ignored his pride and stepped into the elevator pressing the button for their floor since Kakashi hadn't, as if he knew Iruka would give in. That alone made Iruka want to step right back off just to show Kakashi that he didn't know everything.

Instead Iruka just waited leaving them in silence as the elevator ascended. He made sure he was the first to walk off, not wanting to be anywhere near Kakashi for the rest of the day. Well at least as far away as he could be.

The stares of his coworkers was enough to make anyone flinch, but Iruka was on a mission and sat himself down in front of the printer to fix it up. He was lucky he hadn't lost the bag in the scuffle, although it had been torn up a little. Replacing the ink that had run out was easy enough, and he placed the others into a supply drawer before going back to his desk.

Iruka grabbed a hair tie from the small stash that he kept at his desk and went off to the restroom to clean himself up. When he looked in the mirror he was shocked at how disheveled he looked. No wonder his coworkers were staring at him so intently. He'd known his hair was loose after a girl grabbed at it and yelled in excitement when they claimed his hair tie, not to mention it was tickling his neck and starting to drive him insane, but they'd really done a number on his clothes as well. Iruka's sweater was pulled off one shoulder and multiple buttons were hanging on by a thread, at least one was gone, which meant it too was probably in the hands of one of the fan girls. His hair had been run through by both the girls and himself, and it showed.

It was easy enough to clean up his hair even if he didn't have a brush at hand. Iruka ran his fingers through his hair like a comb, getting it good enough to pull back into his usual ponytail. His sweater however couldn't be saved until he got home and found some replacement buttons to sew on in place of the missing ones, so he took it off and folded it up to take home. He straightened his clothes so that he looked presentable again and went back to his desk. Pulling out his phone, Iruka took a quick look around to make sure nobody was going to chastise him for using it during work hours and set off a text to his friends.

_Drinks, tonight after work, the usual place. You in?_

He got back a response from each of them within seconds which meant he wasn't the only one playing with his phone during work hours.  
 _100%_  
 _Yes, please...._  
 _Only if you're buying_

Iruka smiled at the device glad that he could count on his friends to be there when he needed them, and went back to checking his email and seeing what else needed to be done before he could run away from work.

Iruka watched as the seconds ticked down to 5 pm when he'd be able to say he had worked a full day and could leave work. As soon as his computer ticked to 5:00:00 he shut down, grabbed his stuff and bolted out the door, choosing to forgo his usual routine of checking in with Kakashi before leaving for the day. He waited down in the lobby for his friends to gather. They were already chattering about something that had happened today, and Iruka let them talk so he didn't have to contribute until there was alcohol in his system.

"So did you and Kakashi finally have an all out fight?" Kotetsu asked after they'd gotten their first round.

Iruka almost spit out the mouthful of beer, but forced it down instead, "Us fight?" Iruka questioned, they had their spats about stupid stuff for the office before, usually about something like what milk to get for the office, but Iruka never held ill will towards Kakashi.

"Yeah, you and Kakashi were gone for quite a while. Then you came back up looking like you'd been in a fight," Kotetsu explained, "Here I was thinking you'd put him in his place."

Iruka laughed, "No, I didn't attack Kakashi. I don't hate him even if he's a bit brusk most of the time."

"Attack? I was thinking they'd gotten all that sexual tension out of the way by going at it in the janitor's closet or something like that," Genma chimed in.

Iruka choked on the beer in his mouth, hacking as he tried to get air back to his lungs and his friends laughed at his visceral reaction. "Why would you think that?" Iruka asked, voice still gravely from trying to breathe again.

"Ohh come on Iruka, everyone can tell you have a thing for him," Izumo stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I do not," Iruka tried to defend himself.

"No? Then what was with the extra coffee this morning? You do that sometimes, and it's definitely not part of your job as the office manager or Kakashi's assistant."

"It was an apology for yesterday," Iruka responded knowing it sounded like a weak excuse even to his ears. It had been sincere this morning, but now he was wondering what it looked like every time he did something nice.

"See, you care what he thinks about you," Izumo pointed out as if conducting his argument to a jury, and Iruka had no counterargument. "Besides, it's not like you're the only one. We've seen him watch you too."

That seemed to get a nod of agreement from the other two as well.

"You guys are crazy, and you're going to drive me to drink," Iruka teased, getting a round of laughs from his friends and effectively changing the subject. There wasn't a single part of Iruka that could believe them in thinking that Kakashi liked him.

They got another few rounds, and talked about what had been going on since they last went out. Izumo and Kotetsu were thinking about moving in together to 'save on rent', while Genma was complaining about how nobody liked him enough to go out on dates. Iruka was happy enough to just listen and not add in what had been going on with his life. The guys knew his brother was famous, but they were kind enough to ignore it if Iruka wasn't the one to bring up the subject.

Iruka was the first to pay his tab and head out for the night, leaving his friends to their drinks. He was still a little anxious about going home, so without thinking he dialed the number he knew by heart to keep him distracted on his walk.

"Iruka!" Naruto's voice was loud even when he tried to keep it down, and over the phone Iruka had learned to keep the phone a little further from his ear until after Naruto's initial greetings.

"Hey Naruto."

"What's up?" Naruto's curiosity was obvious.

"Does something have to be up for me to call you?" Iruka wondered, pretending to be hurt by the thought.

"No!" Naruto responded immediately, "I love when you call me..."

Iruka laughed, he liked that they were independent, but he did miss getting to spend endless time with his brother when they were younger.

"Good." Iruka scratched his nose trying to think of how to broach the next subject. "Well I guess I did call you for a reason today. You owe me dinner," Iruka stated factually.

"What? I paid last time, it's your turn." Naruto protested.

"True, but I just got completely mobbed by some of your fans today, so you owe me," Iruka dropped the news as smoothly as he could.

"They what!?" Iruka had to pull the phone away from his ear again, hoping that he'd still be able to hear the rest of the phone call.

"I..uh, went on an errand during work and on the way back they came up to me asking all these questions about you and me. They took my hair tie and a couple of the buttons on my sweater."

"I'm sorry Iruka," Naruto sounded disheartened, "We can do Ichiraku's for dinner on Friday. At 7? I promise it's on me," he offered with just the right amount of guilt in his voice.

"Perfect. You know that's the only thing I love more than you," Iruka teased.

"Hey!"

"Kidding..." Iruka laughed out, "I'll see you Friday. Night, Naruto"

"See you then, good night Iruka."

Iruka slipped the phone in his pocket and almost sighed in relief as he saw his apartment building just a few feet down. He knew calling Naruto was the right thing to do. It had always relaxed him to talk to his brother, and it got him home without focusing too much on who might be following him.


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of the week was relatively quiet.

Iruka could see the fans watching him from afar, but they seemed to keep their distance. He wasn't sure if they felt bad or if the building security guards had said something to encourage them to stay away. The guards had stepped up and taken to patrolling the building occasionally, and Iruka had been surprised by Kakashi appearing almost every morning when he came in.

"Good morning, Iruka," Kakashi greeted Iruka, appearing out of thin air.

"Kakashi!" Iruka jumped, surprised to see him there. "Isn't it a little early for you?" Iruka asked. He'd gotten Kakashi's schedule memorized so that he could come in earlier than him to make sure he could start his day before Kakashi needed anything from Iruka.

"Woke up early today, seemed best to just get the day moving," Kakashi explained. Iruka didn't miss his gaze towards a small group of girls that had been starting to walk towards Iruka before he appeared. They were all now pretending to be entranced with their phones.

"And this has nothing to do with what happened the other day?" Iruka had to ask. He'd tried to ignore their conversation but Kakashi's suggestion to date, and his constant appearing out of nowhere felt like he was trying to protect Iruka from Naruto's fans.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi questioned, either pretending to not know what Iruka was talking about, or had really forgotten what he'd said the other day.

"Nevermind," Iruka said with a shake of his head.

Iruka didn't know what else to say so he just stared down at his shoes the whole rest of the way up to their desks not wanting to meet Kakashi's eyes and relive that particularly embarrassing discussion.

* * *

On Friday night Iruka was waiting for Naruto at Ichiraku Ramen, their favorite restaurant. They'd long since made friends with the owner, Teruchi, who always did his best to keep the paparazzi and fans out whenever Naruto came to visit. He'd said it was because they were almost like having his own sons so he'd do anything to keep them happy customers.

Naruto came in and pat Iruka on the back as he sat down next to him. They ordered their usual and Naruto made Iruka tell him about what had happened earlier that week.

"Well the security guards eventually came out and got me out of there. The girls haven't really been bothering me too much since then," Iruka relayed the end, leaving out the part where his boss had gotten involved. Naruto didn't really need to know about that. “Although I think they took my favorite hair tie,” he bemoaned just to play it up to Naruto.

When they finished dinner, Naruto paid as promised, disregarding their usual back and forth. Years ago Iruka made a deal that they would swap who was paying so that Naruto wouldn't feel like Iruka was taking advantage of his status to get free meals, even though Naruto would have been happy to pay for everything.

They waved goodbye to Teruchi and his daughter, then Naruto wrapped an arm over Iruka's shoulder and headed out into the street. Iruka wasn't so sure he liked that Naruto was now taller than him. He had always been the taller one growing up and was used to being the one to do that to Naruto, it wasn’t fair that it was now the other way around.

"Can I drive you home?" Naruto asked, worry evident in his eyes after Iruka's stories from the last week.

"Nah, it doesn't really make sense your apartment is in the opposite direction. Besides it's just a few blocks."

Naruto scrunched up his face, as if he was trying to find something to counter Iruka's rationale, but couldn't. He pulled Iruka into a hug and kissed him on the forehead mimicking how Iruka had always done that growing up.

"Fine, but be careful. You have to tell me if my fans come after you again..." Naruto's voice faltered from concern.

"I know, I'll be fine," Iruka responded, "See ya later."

Naruto patted him on the shoulder and waved as he walked towards his car parked just a few spots away from the doors. Iruka watched him leave then started his walk back towards his apartment.

He was thinking about what he could do to keep the fans away when he came up to a crosswalk with the walk sign on. Iruka wasn't looking carefully to make sure that the cars had stopped so when he noticed a car racing towards the crosswalk with no intention to stop he froze, unable to move out of the way.

"Watch out!" a voice yelled and pushed him out of the way just in time to avoid getting run over. "Are you ok?" the familiar voice asked from above him.

Iruka looked up to see Kakashi.

"I-" Iruka was at a loss for words. Was he supposed to say thank you, or I'm sorry? Or something else entirely. His brain just couldn't decide.

"Come on, let's get out of the street," Kakashi said, pulling him up off the ground and guiding him to the other side of the crosswalk.

He kept walking even after they'd gotten to the sidewalk until they reached a bench that was sitting alongside the road.

"Thank you," Iruka's brain finally caught up and decided thank you was the right choice of response.

"Are you hurt?" Kakashi asked, his hands hovering as if he was afraid to touch Iruka.

Iruka lifted his arms to check them out. He'd been too shocked to feel pain, but now he could see a few scrapes up and down his arms. "A couple of scrapes, but nothing serious."

Kakashi frowned, something Iruka rarely saw. He'd seen Kakashi upset, but that didn't translate to this particular frown.

"I'm ok, I didn't get run over thanks to you. I can handle a few scrapes as a trade off," Iruka tried to ease Kakashi's concern.

"Are you sure that was just some random accident?" Kakashi asked, hinting as something else.

Iruka wasn't sure he understood where Kakashi was going with this, "What else would it be?"

"Just a few days after being mobbed by fans, a car comes out of nowhere, pretty intent on running you down...I'd bet it was another fan," Kakashi laid down his theory.

"Not possible. Nobody is that crazy," Iruka tried to sound convinced of his own words, but Kakashi’s theory planted seeds of doubt in his mind.

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sure it was just someone not paying attention," Kakashi sounded defeated as if he wanted to believe Iruka too.

"Do you need a ride home?" Kakashi offered, after a moment of awkward silence between them.

Iruka looked around, he really wasn't far from his apartment, it seemed like such a waste of Kakashi's time to drive him there.

"I'll be fine," Iruka shook his head. Kakashi gave him a look with a single eyebrow raised in question. "I know, but really...my apartment is only about two blocks that way, and I don't have any more streets to cross if it makes you feel better."

Kakashi stared into Iruka's eyes as if trying to figure out if he was lying. "I guess I'll see you bright and early on Monday morning then."

"Sure. Good night Kakashi," Iruka said with a smile in his voice, unable to hold back the little bit of happiness that Kakashi might be worried about him.

"Good night Iruka," Kakashi responded.

It was the first time that Kakashi had given Iruka a proper good night.

* * *

Iruka decided he wanted to stay home all weekend. It wasn't because of the car, well he was going to at least pretend that it wasn't about the car. He just needed to have one relaxing weekend in the middle of all this madness. Still at some point in the weekend he decided he needed to get out. It wasn't because he couldn't order food in, but more that he needed even just 15 minutes of fresh air.

He walked down to a restaurant that was down and around the corner, ordered some food to go, and took it back to his place to eat.

By the time he got his food and made it back to his place there was an envelope attached to his front door. Not thinking much of it, Iruka grabbed the envelope and took it inside with his hands full of food. He tossed it on the table and went to make himself a plate of food, putting the rest of it away for leftovers later that week.

After scarfing down most of the food he decided to check out what was inside the envelope. He was just expecting something from his landlord, hopefully just notifying him of an inspection, but at worst informing him of a rent increase. Instead he found a letter with a few photos.

He looked at the photos first, realizing they were shots from the other night when he'd been out with Naruto. Some were shots taken through the windows of the bar while they were eating, while the rest were of Naruto and him walking out of the restaurant with Naruto's arm around Iruka's shoulders. The last one that was of Naruto kissing his forehead and someone had marked a large red X through his face.

The photo almost slipped out of his hand as it started shaking. He was afraid to see what the paper said; Iruka could just barely read the first line that looked like HOW DARE YOU!

Iruka took a breath and tried to steel himself for what he was about to read thinking it was better to just get it over with then sit wondering.

**HOW DARE YOU!!!**   
_You no-name, low pay office worker. You have no right to take Naruto away from me. We belong together and you're in our way. He deserves so much better than you in his life. I can't imagine how you captured his attention with the dull hair and average looking face. That stupid scar across your face just makes you uglier. I've been to all of his concerts and I can't imagine how someone like you got to be in the VIP area. I've been watching his whole career and you couldn't possibly know as much about him as I do. We were meant to be together and you're just in the way. I wish I'd managed to hit you with my car if that stupid guy hadn't saved you._   
**STAY AWAY FROM MY NARUTO OR ELSE!**

Iruka’s whole body shook by the time he made it through the letter. This was really too far, and he didn't know if he could keep going this way. He had promised to tell Naruto if the fans kept bothering him, but he didn't know how Naruto would respond to something like this. Tsunade was the one who initiated these rumors, and now he could see why they were so worried about Hinata not getting any notice by the fans. She probably would be ready to call off the wedding if something like this had been sent to her.

With a deep breath Iruka put the letter back in the envelope and slid the pictures back in as they were when he opened it. He took one more look at the photo where his face had been crossed out. It would have been a perfect picture of them if it weren't from such a malicious source.

After he closed up the envelope, Iruka slid it between two books on his bookshelf. He wanted it hidden so he wouldn't think much about it, but throwing it away didn't seem right either.

Iruka decided he wasn't fit to go into work the next day and sent an email to tell the team he'd be out due to not feeling well. While there was a part of him that was anxious that this person knew where he lived and he'd be home alone tomorrow, he was also almost sick to his stomach thinking about the fact that they had confessed to trying to run him over. So of his two choices he'd rather this person came after him at home, than him being afraid of every car that he had to walk past on his way to work.

He'd get over it eventually, but one day at home wouldn't hurt.

* * *

Iruka woke up to the sound of someone pounding on his door. He jumped out of bed and shakily walked towards the door. Not very many people knew where he lived, or even visited him at home, but of those people most of them should be at work by now.

He looked out the peephole, unsure of who he expected to see, but Kakashi wasn't one of them.

Opening the door Iruka tried to give Kakashi a smile, "Good morning?" The greeting came out as more of a question.

"Morning," Kakashi replied with a bit of a scowl on his face.

"Is something wrong?" Iruka asked, half hiding behind his door. He knew Kakashi well enough, but he wasn't sure who else could be watching them.

"You didn't come into work," Kakashi stated as if it explained everything.

"Well, I sent an email about that," Iruka responded knowing that he hadn't been out often, but even Kakashi should be able to handle a day without him.

Kakashi's frown deepened, "I was worried something else might have happened...you know after what happened on Friday."

Iruka grimaced. He wasn't about to tell Kakashi about the letter he'd gotten, but he could tell that Kakashi wasn't going away without a more in-depth conversation.

Iruka conceded, opening the door for Kakashi to come in. "I'll...uhh go put on something more decent..." he said when he realized what he was wearing. He caught Kakashi's glance down and immediately looked away after he'd pointed out his state of dress. Iruka certainly didn't miss the hint of a blush that graced Kakashi's cheeks. He thought about what his friends had said about Kakashi looking at him during work, and wondered if they were right or if he was just embarrassed.

Art by [SqueakyNinja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SqueakyNinja/pseuds/SqueakyNinja)

"I'll be right back," Iruka said after he closed the door behind Kakashi.

He left Kakashi in his living room and went back to his bedroom to pull out the first pair of sweatpants he could find. He pulled them on over the boxers he'd worn to bed, and grabbed a hair tie to pull back his messy shoulder length hair. He glanced at himself in the mirror and hoped it was appropriate enough for talking to his boss.

When he came back out into his living room, Iruka caught Kakashi standing next to his bookcase with the envelope in his hand that Iruka tried to hide.

"Kakashi, what-" Iruka didn't know what to say. He didn't want to call attention to the envelope because then Kakashi would know it was special, but if he made it seem too normal Kakashi wouldn't put it down.

"What is it? Looks like it was stuffed between two books on accident."

"Nothing important," Iruka tried to wave it off, but the look from Kakashi made him wonder if he could sense Iruka's desperation.

Kakashi's hand tightened on the envelope, "Something did happen after you left on Friday didn't it... Is that why you didn't come in today?"

"Nothing happened, I just wasn't feeling well," Iruka tried to deflect.

Kakashi's other hand darted to feel his forehead making him blush.

"You're not sick though," Kakashi assessed.

"It's called a mental health day. You should try it some time," Iruka replied, unimpressed that Kakashi's only sense of not feeling well was being sick.

Kakashi eyed the envelope and started to open it.

"No!" Iruka yelled, instinctively trying to grab it away from him. Kakashi's eyes went wide as he saw the photos and ripped the paper out to read it.

"Iruka..." Kakashi said his name in a voice that lay somewhere between complete concern and unfathomable anger.

"I said I'm fine," Iruka growled, taking the opportunity to pull the letter and photos away from Kakashi's slack hands and stuffing it all back in the envelope.

"Iruka, you have to tell the police. Someone is threatening you and you're pretending like it's a Christmas card or something." Kakashi stepped towards Iruka and placed a hand on his shoulder. When Iruka involuntarily jumped at the contact, Kakashi pulled away from him.

"I can't... I- I just don't know what to do..." Iruka admitted. The letter had shaken him up worse than he thought.

"Why don't you give them something to prove you aren't dating your brother."

"Like what?" Iruka questioned.

"Say you're dating me, and that you're just friends with him, or maybe even tell them the truth," Kakashi suggested.

"I don't know..." Iruka still couldn't imagine this going over too well with the fans.

"If he really cares about you, your brother wouldn't be too happy to hear about that," Kakashi pointed towards the letter that Iruka held in his hands.

"I can't tell him about this."

"Then use me as an excuse to get him to tell the truth."

Iruka pursed his lips, it wasn't a half bad idea. If he told Naruto and Tsunade he needed this cleared up because he was dating someone it might be enough for them to make a statement and clear up this mess with the tabloids.

"Fine."

Kakashi's eyebrows raised as if he didn't expect Iruka to agree, or maybe he just expected it to take a bit more convincing.

"It has to be kept quiet at work," Iruka said, "Or I'll never hear the end of it..." he added.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, "Professional during business hours."

"I have to tell my brother first. If we don't get this to the tabloids before we get noticed I'll have more than just one fan coming after me. They'll probably follow us a bit after this gets announced."

"Fair enough, I'm trusting that you know them better than I do. Anything else?"

Iruka paused to think of what other ground rules he might need to set, but he hadn't been in any relationship like this before. He remembered some rom-com he'd watched where a girl had proposed a similar situation, and their key rule was no kissing, but Iruka couldn't imagine Kakashi trying to kiss him, so that seemed unnecessary.

"I'll let you know if I think of anything."

"Ok," Kakashi took it in stride. He looked down at his watch and grimaced, "I should get to work."

"It's probably nice that your assistant isn't waiting there to chide you for being late today," Iruka teased, finally feeling a bit lighter than he had in a week.

Kakashi grinned and leaned over into Iruka's personal space. Iruka closed his eyes, not quite sure what he was expecting Kakashi to do, but felt a small kiss to his cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Iruka was speechless.

He just nodded like an idiot and watched Kakashi leave his apartment.

Shaking himself out of his trance, Iruka locked his door and went to find his phone to text Naruto.

_I need to talk to you and Tsunade ASAP. Tell me when I can come over._

* * *

Iruka pressed the code into Naruto's keypad that would let him into the apartment. He'd gotten a text from Naruto saying that he and Tsunade could be back to his place by the late afternoon, so Iruka made his way over on the early side so he was ready for the conversation that needed to happen.

He knew his way around Naruto's apartment as if it were his own. Both Naruto and himself had been so busy lately that he hadn't been around much, but it was still like a second home.

In the kitchen Iruka filled up the electric kettle with water and started heating it up. He figured that tea might be nice while they had this conversation.

There were some beeps at the door as someone else pressed in a code for the keypad and the door opened. It wasn't either of the people he was expecting, but instead Hinata.

"Ohh Iruka..." Hinata noted him, sounding similarly surprised by his presence. "I didn't know you were coming over. I can-" she pointed at the door she had just entered as if she intended to leave because he was there.

"No, it's fine. I was waiting for Naruto and Tsunade, you can keep me company until they're back."

Hinata blushed as she often did and continued into the room placing a box onto the kitchen counter.

"I..uhh got a cake for dessert, but we can have it with the tea," she offered, making note of the kettle.

Iruka felt a little guilty that he seemed to be intruding on the night that Hinata had planned for, but he figured it'd feel just as bad to turn her down. "I wouldn't say no. Naruto's not the only one with a sweet tooth," he teased with a smile.

Hinata smiled back at him with a giggle. She was stunning when she smiled, Iruka was certain that's what won Naruto over. Hinata was a model that Naruto had met at a benefit about a year ago. Iruka had at least gotten to meet her a couple of times after they started dating. Most people wouldn't expect her to be a model since she often hid herself under baggy clothes, but he'd seen some of her pictures in the magazines and he could understand why she was popular.

Without any directions Hinata started going around cupboards and drawers to grab plates and silverware for their treat. Iruka's heart gushed a little, realizing she was so comfortable in Naruto's apartment.

"Ohh, I told Naruto, but I never got to tell you..." Iruka remembered something important, "Congratulations on your engagement." Iruka had barely gotten to see Naruto in the months since they had gotten engaged, and Hinata had been so busy planning the wedding that Iruka hadn't seen her since Naruto told him the big news.

Hinata's perpetual blush deepened to a dark red. "Thank you," she said as if she had forgotten that she'd be getting attention all through this process.

Iruka came over to give her a hug which she returned as if they were already brother and sister.

They finished setting up just in time for Naruto and Tsunade to come through the door, bickering loudly.

"No, you said we were doing an interview! That was a whole photoshoot," Naruto blamed Tsunade.

Tsunade shrugged, "What can I say, they asked for an interview with photos, and you definitely would have said no." Nobody could say that Tsunade didn't know how to get what she wanted, "stop bellyaching, the band looked great."

Naruto grumbled a bit to himself, but when he laid his eyes on the tea and cake, his whole face lit up. He turned to Iruka and Hinata who had been listening to the whole argument and rushed over to them. There was a light peck to Hinata's forehead and a huge bear hug for Iruka. Normally Iruka would have chastised Naruto for ignoring his fiance, but from Hinata's flaming red face, he figured that she wouldn't be able to handle much more in front of people. How were they ever going to be able to kiss at their wedding?

"What did you want to talk about Iruka?" Tsunade asked taking a cup of tea over to the table where she could sit down.

Iruka looked around knowing that they were all waiting on him, but he was a bit nervous to lie to everyone. "I need you to set the tabloids straight about Naruto and I being brothers, not dating each other."

Tsunade frowned at him, taking a few sips of her tea before responding, "Why should I do that?"

Iruka wanted to roll his eyes but he held back since he was pretty much asking Tsunade to do him a huge favor. "It's just- it's gotten really awkward with the guy I'm dating."

"WHHAAAT!?" Naruto yelled across the room, "How could you not tell me you were dating someone?"

Iruka could feel his cheeks heating up as everyone's eyes were on him.

"I- It was mostly casual to start so I didn't know if there was anything to tell, but he apparently saw the news and wasn't all too happy about it."

Iruka couldn't look at Naruto with his hurt puppy dog look, and Tsunade was glaring holes in his head, so he met eyes with Hinata, who had only sympathy in her eyes, understanding full well what it meant when the tabloids were ruining someone's love life.

"Right..." Tsunade drawled out like she didn't quite believe him, "And how are we supposed to get them to listen anyhow?"

"I don't know, just tell them the truth? Maybe we can share that family photo we both have. Aren't you supposed to be good at stuff like this?" Iruka questioned.

"Good?!" Tsunade exclaimed, taking Iruka's bait, "I'm fantastic at it!"

"Then you'll help me out?" Iruka asked innocently as he sipped at his tea.

Tsunade eyed him realizing that she'd played right into his hands. She really could never resist trying to show others up. "Fine, I've got friends I can send it to that'll eat up a story like this."

"Thank you," Iruka said, giving his strongest fake smile for her. He could tell she wanted to rip him to shreds, but would never dare to do it in front of Naruto or Hinata.

"When do I meet him?" Naruto asked, his serious side coming out. This didn't happen very often, but then again Iruka didn't date often. Iruka had his fair share of bad relationships, so Naruto had become pretty protective whenever there was someone new in his life.

"Naruto it's still new, I don't know..." Iruka tried to push it off as long as he could, "Right now I just need your fans to not think we're together. Otherwise I'll get eaten alive for supposedly cheating on you, when there was never really an us to begin with.”

Naruto looked hurt, but Iruka couldn't blame him; Naruto hadn't taken it well when Iruka told him the full story of the fangirls coming after him last week.

"Just- be careful alright?" Naruto finally asked him.

"I'll try," he replied, walking over to give Naruto a hug to show he didn't want to upset him.

The three of them chatted while Tsunade was off in the guest bedroom trying to straighten everything out. It was a bit before she came out and cleared her throat to get their attention. "All right, so I've told them that you two grew up like brothers since your parents were close friends, and gave them the family photo as proof. Then I pointed then to the photo that was taken last week to say it was Naruto cheering you on with your new boyfriend. Happy?"

Iruka stiffened at the mention of a photo from last week, wondering if it was the same one that was sitting in that envelope he had hidden. He forced a smile, "Thank you Tsunade."

He was feeling a little flustered, so he used the moment as a queue to leave, "I should let you two have your night together, sorry we've taken up so much of it with business talk."

Hinata shook her head, "Don't be sorry, it was wonderful to see you Iruka."

He went for a round of hugs from Naruto and Hinata, giving Tsunade a wave instead. As he started walking out of the apartment Tsunade decided to leave as well, and followed him down the hallway.

They were silent until they'd made it about halfway to the elevator and she grabbed onto his arm before he could run away from her.

"You lied... I can tell," she stared him down.

"Lied about what?" Iruka started to shake. He'd almost forgotten how scary Tsunade could be when she was angry.

"Your mysterious boyfriend? Is he real?"

"Why would I lie about that?" Iruka questioned, trying to pull his arm away from her, but she was stronger and stood her ground.

"Because the fans are getting to you."

Iruka scrunched up his face, caught between wanting to tell Tsunade and knowing he had to keep it secret.

"Naruto already told me you were getting accosted by a few girls, but I think you're scared of something else," she said, practically pinning him in a corner to the point where he'd have to tell her the truth.

"Fine! Just let go, you're going to give me a bruise," Iruka confessed. He nursed his arm as soon as she let him go. "Look, I didn't want to tell Naruto because he'd freak out and neither of us want that." Iruka took a deep breath and told her the truth, well at least most of it, "One of the fans sent me a nasty letter with pictures. It was obvious they'd been following me." Iruka wasn't quite ready to tell her about the car too.

"So what, it's just a letter. Burn it like all the other celebrities do."

"Tsunade I don't think you understand, I'm not a celebrity, I go home to my apartment alone, I don't have special doormen that stop people from coming near. They left the letter on the front door of my apartment while I went to get food. They know my address, they know where I work, and they're constantly following me. I didn't sign up for this."

Tsunade's expression softened, "Look, I know it's rough, I'm sorry. I just wish we'd gotten a little more time before the wedding."

"I know, but it'll be fine. This just got so serious so fast for me."

He didn't want to keep standing there, so he turned back towards the elevator, pressing the button willing it to come as fast as possible so he could get out of here.

"So what about the boyfriend?" Tsunade asked following behind him. When she wasn't ruining their lives she liked to act like she was their big sister.

The elevator dinged, but Iruka realized it wasn't going down, it was coming up and suddenly he was face-to-face with Kakashi.

"Kakashi?"

"Iruka."

Iruka wondered why Kakashi was here. He didn't seem like the type that had too many friends, which left the only option that he lived there.

"Ohh I see..." Tsunade realized her question was answered.

"What, no- Wait, yes," Iruka responded to her question.

Kakashi got off the elevator before it closed on him and stopped there as if waiting for someone else to start this conversation.

"Tsunade," she introduced herself, "I assume you're the reason I had to work extra today."

Kakashi snapped to look over at Iruka, giving him a questioning brow raise.

"Tsunade is in charge of my brother's media presence," Iruka explained, hoping Kakashi could connect the pieces.

"Ohh," Kakashi didn't return the smile she gave him. The frown on his face made it pretty clear that he knew Tsunade was the reason that Iruka was being pursued by Naruto's fans.

"Hmm, feisty. You'll be good together," Tsunade observed before walking onto the elevator that was going down. She closed it behind her and left Kakashi and Iruka in the hallway together.

"I was just- You live here?" Iruka asked.

"Yeah, just over there," Kakashi pointed to the apartment just across the hall from Naruto's.

Iruka couldn't hold back his laugh, really what more could life throw at him.

"What?" Kakashi asked.

"It's just crazy to think that you've lived across the hall from my brother, for who knows how long and we never knew."

"Wait, Naruto's your brother?" Kakashi questioned him.

"Yeah," Iruka had talked about his brother, but he guessed he'd never mentioned him by name.

"Right..." the man stared at Naruto's door as if there were pieces of a puzzle coming together in his head.

"Well, I should probably get going," Iruka announced, pulling Kakashi's attention back to him.

"Did you want to get dinner?" Kakashi asked. Iruka wondered if it was just because he didn't want to go back to his apartment or if it was because he didn't want Iruka to leave. Iruka had to assume it was the former.

"Well I don't know that the tabloids have gotten everything straightened out yet, so it's probably best to wait," Iruka explained. He would have loved to get dinner with Kakashi, but he was still a little nervous about how well the news would spread, and he wasn't ready to tempt fate.

"Tomorrow then?" Kakashi offered.

Iruka smiled, "Tomorrow," he agreed.

Kakashi nodded and walked towards his door while Iruka pushed the button to call the elevator again.

The elevator pinged just as Kakashi opened his door. They looked at each other one last time before entering their respective doors and went along with their evenings.

* * *

It was an uneventful walk home for Iruka, which really just meant that it was exactly how it should be. When he got inside he decided to check up on the news and fan sites to see what they were saying.

Most of them quoted Tsunade verbatim.

_It appears there's been a mistake on the most recent reports of Naruto's love interest. This young man, Iruka Umino, is Naruto's brother. Their families were close, and Naruto's parents took in Iruka after his parents perished in a terrible fire. Similarly Iruka took care of a young Naruto when his parents died in a car accident._

It was almost poetic if Iruka hadn’t been a part of the grief and pain that came with those deaths. There was a time when it had been just Iruka and Naruto. None of these people would understand what they went through.

He saw the pictures that accompanied the article, some from when they were younger, and then the same two photos that the fans had been using as proof that they were dating. These two came with a new caption this time, _Naruto congratulates Iruka and the new love he found_. For the tabloids that was almost a throw away line, but it seemed to be all that the fan sites could talk about. Some people were focused on 'the brother we never knew about' while others commended Naruto on being a 'proud little brother'. There was only one site that seemed to think it was all a sham.

Iruka wasn't sure what to think of this particular site, the author was thinking up some government conspiracy level ideas over the news.

**Loves and Lies**   
_Beloved Kistune's singer Naruto's boyfriend pretends they were never together. He's got a new fake boyfriend to cover up that he's secretly dating his childhood crush._

Iruka rolled his eyes, hoping that everyone found this story too far-fetched to believe it was real. Now that everyone had their backstory, they had to understand they were 10 years apart in age and growing up the way they did would make a childhood crush by either of them a little inappropriate.

Still the websites seemed to give Iruka a little bit of breathing room. He was no longer Naruto's boyfriend, and he could start "dating" Kakashi to prove it. He just hoped that the fans wouldn't be interested in him just by the fact that they were brothers.

Iruka was looking forward to the peace and quiet, and he'd be lying if he wasn't looking forward to the dating as well. Getting the chance to date your crush, even if it was pretend, seemed like a pretty good deal to him.


	3. Chapter 3

Iruka felt a sense of relief as he walked to work the next morning. There was no malicious note, no feeling of being watched, and no girls everywhere waiting to talk to him. There were a few moments where someone turned to look at him as if they knew him, but it was left at a casual glance.

As he approached the office building there was someone waiting, but it wasn't a fangirl, it was Kakashi there with coffee in hand leaning against the side of the building In Iruka's path to the front door of the office.

"Morning," Kakashi greeted before Iruka's brain could quite process what was going on.

"Good morning," Iruka returned the greeting.

They walked in silence for a moment before Iruka's mouth caught up with his mind.

"Are you changing your morning routine? I should probably start coming in sooner if so," Iruka teased, hoping to relieve some of the tension.

"Don't," Kakashi grabbed Iruka's forearm, as if begging him not to, instead of demanding it. Iruka looked at Kakashi waiting for an explanation, but got none. Instead they just stood there staring at each other, neither daring to be the first to speak.

"Ok..." Iruka whispered as he broke away from the stare and turned back towards their office.

Kakashi put a hand on Iruka's shoulder to stop him, "Wait."

“What? You meant somet-” Iruka was cut off by lips on his own. It wasn't a long kiss, but it was still enough to stun him into silence.

"That's why I came in early, so don't come in earlier than me," Kakashi whispered into Iruka's ear.

Iruka tried to respond, but his mouth just wouldn’t work.

Kakashi smirked and continued on his way, leaving Iruka to catch up on his own. Iruka moved quickly to follow behind him, unable to think of anything to say until they were standing in the elevators alone.

"I said professional at work!" Iruka hissed out.

"We weren't at work yet," Kakashi reasoned with a shrug.

"Yes! Yes we were," Iruka argued back.

"I don't think it counts as work until we get out of this elevator," Kakashi challenged him.

"What?!" Iruka protested, but before he could say more the elevator chimed and the doors opened.

In a snap Kakashi's demeanor changed to his stoic CEO that everyone in the office knew, and he walked away towards his desk. Iruka sighed and just gave in following Kakashi to where their desks were. He was already waiting for the day to end even though it had barely started.

* * *

As the day neared its end Iruka thought he was set to finish on time, until Kakashi dumped a pile of paperwork on him. His friends observed from nearby with sympathetic looks, but continued to pack up their own bags before heading out for the day. No one envied Iruka's job.

Most days Iruka was happy to do his job, it was something about being able to help others that he really enjoyed, but the work he got from Kakashi was always an unknown. Sometimes it was easy work to do, and other days like today, it was just a pile of paperwork to sort and fill out.

These days were the worst.

Iruka sifted through the paperwork, watching and envying those that were getting to head home. He had been told that these were needed before tomorrow morning, so Iruka felt like there was no other choice than to sit here and finish them up.

Soon it was only Iruka and Kakashi left in the office, all the other lights were turned down or off, and Iruka felt almost alone.

"Are you ready?" Kakashi asked with his coat in hand.

Iruka glared at Kakashi, "Ready for what?" Normally he'd be home by now, but instead he was stuck sitting here, working through the pile of paperwork that was maybe half the size it had been when Kakashi handed it to him.

"Dinner," Kakashi replied, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"How can I go to dinner when you gave me this whole pile of paperwork?" Iruka grumbled.

"Ohh that, I just gave it to you so we could leave together."

"That's so kind of you," Iruka commented, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Does that mean my boss won't be upset if it's not finished?"

"Well, I still need it done, but I might have lied on the timeframe."

Iruka rolled his eyes, not sure that he was so keen on Kakashi's 'brilliant plan'. It seemed a bit foolish to concoct a reason for Iruka to stay late instead of just asking him to wait.

"Fine, I'll get to it tomorrow. What's for dinner?" Iruka questioned as he packed up his side satchel and left the papers for tomorrow morning.

"Pizza?" Kakashi offered.

"Hmmm, so fancy for a first date," Iruka teased.

He watched Kakashi's eyes go wide, but Iruka wasn't sure if it was from the teasing or that Kakashi hadn't realized it would be their first 'date' in this faked relationship.

Kakashi cleared his throat, "Sorry, should we go somewhere nicer?" He asked with genuine concern.

Iruka laughed, "No, pizza is perfect. I don't really need to be taken to nice places. It's not really my style."

Kakashi seemed to mull over his words with great thought, and Iruka wondered if he'd ever really done this dating thing. Or may he had just never dated someone like Iruka who didn't care for the frills and finery of dating.

They made their way down to the lobby, and instead of walking out Iruka's normal way, Kakashi led them towards the garage. Iruka hadn't really thought about it earlier when Kakashi was there waiting for him this morning, but if he drove into work, then Kakashi must have taken time out to wait for him. Iruka wasn't sure if it was something he should be expecting to continue each day or if Kakashi just wanted to start this thing off with something special.

Iruka followed Kakashi towards a fancy car. It was one of the only cars in the garage so Iruka had to assume it was Kakashi's. Before Iruka could think much about it, Kakashi swooped in and opened the door for Iruka. That had never happened before. Sure his parents had always opened car doors when he was younger, but since he had grown up Iruka had never had a date open the car door for him. It wasn't anything special, but it made him feel like he mattered.

Kakashi closed the door behind Iruka and got into his side, reeving up the car engine before driving out of the garage. Iruka avoided cars most of the time if he had a choice, but he trusted Kakashi, so he tried to stay calm. After Kushina and Minato had died in that accident he'd found that he didn't like being inside of a machine that was so dangerous. It had played a big part in why he found an apartment close enough to both work and Naruto so that he had no reason to ever need one.

When Kakashi stopped the car, they were in front of a fancy looking Italian restaurant. It looked familiar and Iruka remembered the newspapers raving about this place. It had world class chefs and was getting great reviews even though it had only been open for a few months.

"I thought you said pizza?" Iruka asked, feeling like he wasn't fit to even walk past this place let alone eat here.

"They have some of the best pizza I've eaten," Kakashi explained. He got out of the car and opened Iruka's door. "Come on," he beckoned for Iruka to take his hand and get out of the car too.

Iruka took a deep breath and reminded himself that Kakashi wasn't intending to make him uncomfortable. He got out of the car and waited for Kakashi to close the door before walking towards the hostess. Kakashi smiled at him, which Iruka couldn't help himself from returning a smile. Iruka stood behind Kakashi, looking around at the grandeur of the dining room still waiting to be told that he wasn't welcome in. Whether it was his clothing, his hair, or just him, he felt like he didn't quite belong. The hostess didn't say anything other than "Have a good meal" as she sat them at a table near a fireplace that was nice on the chilly night.

Mimicking Kakashi, Iruka opened his menu, but had no idea what he was supposed to decide.

"Red or White?" Kakashi asked as he went through the menu in front of him.

"Huh?" Iruka had no idea what Kakashi was referring to.

"Wine," Kakashi clarified, "Do you prefer red or white?" Kakashi asked again.

Iruka had wine occasionally, but it really wasn't his normal drink of choice, "I don't know much about wine, it's probably better if you decide," he wanted to make sure Kakashi enjoyed it even if he wouldn't.

"Well then how about we start with what type of pizza you want."

"Cheese?" Iruka suggested. There was a part of him that always enjoyed the simplicity of cheese pizza, but he was almost nervous of telling Kakashi that he didn't like anything too fancy.

"Margherita," Kakashi said in return.

"Isn't that a drink?" Iruka asked.

Kakashi laughed and pointed towards an item on the menu that Iruka was holding in front of him.

Margherita was listed where Kakashi's finger pointed. As Iruka read through the ingredients, it seemed like an upscale version of cheese pizza, including some basil. It sounded perfect.

"Sure, that sounds good."

Kakashi nodded, "Then I'll suggest a Pinot Grigio."

"Is that what you like?" Iruka asked, hoping he wasn't swaying Kakashi's decisions.

"I'm more particular on the source of the wine than which type. I think pairing with the right food is more important for enjoying wine.

Iruka nodded trusting that Kakashi had spent more time thinking about this than he had. To Iruka it was just a dinner of wine and pizza, and he'd enjoy that whether it was the 'right pairing' or not. Honestly just having a meal with Kakashi would make the night worth it.

When the waiter came over Kakashi started listing off their order. It was a little unusual for him to not be ordering for himself, but they were sharing so it made sense.

"So I gather you aren't used to restaurants like this?" Kakashi asked once they were alone.

"Not so much..." Iruka agreed, "I've never made a lot of money to spend on fancy places, and Naruto eats too much for us to go out for expensive food."

"Hmm, isn't he the famous one? Why isn't he paying for his food?"

Iruka shook his head, "We flip back and forth on who pays. I don't want him spending his money on me."

"That's pretty noble of you," Kakashi admired.

"Noble?" Iruka eyed Kakashi, "I don't think I'd call it that. I just want us to have a normal sibling relationship, well as normal as it can be. I don't think it's fair for me to take advantage of him paying simply because he's famous. He's had to deal with enough people in his life that have used his fame against him."

"You really care for him don't you..." Kakashi asked with an almost confused look.

"Of course I do, he's my brother."

"But he's not."

"What?" Iruka couldn't believe that Kakashi would say such a thing.

"Not by blood, you said that before, didn't you?"

"You have a lot to learn if you think that only people related by blood can be family," Iruka huffed out. He started to question everything. Both dinner and the crazy idea to ever date Kakashi.

A long pause sat between them, only the waiter placing down a plate of calamari pulled them from their mood.

"I'm sorry," Kakashi apologized, "I didn't intend to discount your relationship. I guess I've just never seen anything like what you have."

"I know we're a bit of an unusual case, but he's my brother, and both of us feel that way regardless of how we're related to each other."

"I'm starting to understand," Kakashi acknowledged Iruka's feelings, setting them back to an awkward silence.

"Why don't we eat, we wouldn't want the food to get cold." Kakashi offered, trying to get them back to their purpose at this restaurant.

Iruka looked down at the dish full of breaded and fried calamari. It was mixed with some fried green beans as if the restaurant was trying to pretend to be healthy.

They ate their appetizer in relative silence, neither seeming to know how to start their conversation back up after it had turned sour. Still Iruka wasn't one for silence. In fact he couldn't stand it.

"So, have you met my brother then?" Iruka asked, trying to find something that they could both talk about.

"Naruto?" Iruka eyed Kakashi; who else would he be talking about? "A couple of times," Kakashi finally answered.

"And..." Iruka was goading him on to share more.

"I don't think he likes me," Kakashi said after some thought.

"Naruto?" Iruka questioned whether they were talking about the same person, "He likes everyone, how could he not like you?"

Kakashi flushed at the comment. Iruka tried to read Kakashi, but was finding it hard to understand him. Was this blush because he was embarrassed by something that had happened, or was it because of Iruka's inadvertent compliment.

"He's a bit talkative isn't he?" Kakashi asked as if trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, did something happen?" Iruka had to wonder.

Kakashi hesitated as if he were about to say something but it took him a few moments to say outloud what he was thinking. "I might have tried to close the door to the elevator at least once so I could avoid his talking."

Iruka bit his lip, but it wasn't enough to stop him from bursting out laughing. It was all too understandable. Even he could get tired of Naruto's exuberance on occasion and he could only imagine Kakashi wanting a peaceful elevator ride. Naruto was too oblivious to take the hint that someone might not want to talk about their day and just keep blabbing on.

Once Iruka was able to stop laughing long enough he had to ask one thing, "And knowing Naruto...Let me guess, he thought it was a total accident?"

He didn't need Kakashi to voice his answer because it was written all over his face. Iruka couldn't hold back his laugh. The other couples in the restaurant must have thought he was crazy, but Iruka had needed the laugh.

As he slowly caught his breath, Iruka smiled at Kakashi, "I'm sorry, but he's completely predictable."

"I'm glad my misfortune gives you joy," Kakashi replied, looking hurt by Iruka's laughter, but Iruka could tell from the way his eyes shone that he was secretly laughing along with Iruka.

Iruka's smile grew, "It's not so much your misfortune that makes it funny, it's really his inability to observe and learn that not everyone is as interested in chatting as him. I've tried to teach him, but he's just too friendly to change."

Their conversation eased into other topics like work and interesting subjects unlike their earlier stilted conversations. It wasn't long until they were interrupted by the arrival of their dinner.

"Looks good doesn't it?" Kakashi appraised the pizza after the waiter left them to eat.

Iruka hesitated. He didn't quite know what to think of the Margherita pizza. To him it just seemed like someone was skimping out on the cheese coverage as there was almost as much sauce showing as there was cheese. Still Kakashi seemed to think it was perfect.

"Is something wrong?" Kakashi asked, stopping himself in the middle of pulling a slice for himself.

"No," Iruka lied. He was certain it would taste fine.

"Iruka..."

"Fine," Iruka caved, "it's just that it looks like a cheese pizza where someone forgot to actually put cheese on it."

Kakashi laughed at him.

"What?" Iruka frowned.

"I can understand the sentiment. Margherita pizza is usually made with slices of mozzarella instead of the shredded cheese that you're probably used to. I promise it's still good, it might be even better than what you've had."

Iruka looked again and shrugged his shoulders, deciding to take the chance on the food if Kakashi praised it so highly. He waited for Kakashi to grab his own piece before picking it up to eat.

Iruka took a bite and realized Kakashi was right. This was one of the best pizzas Iruka had ever had, if not the best. Between the melting cheese and the tangy tomato sauce, down to the herbs and spices on top with the basil. Iruka's experience with pizza had been pedestrian compared to this. He didn't even care that it was still a touch too warm, Iruka wanted to savor every bite of this pizza.

"Good?" Kakashi asked with a knowing smirk.

Iruka didn't dignify Kakashi's question with a response; he just took another bite.

Kakashi bit into his own slice letting the background music take over for their lost conversation.

Iruka took a second slice without thinking twice, but it was when he almost grabbed for a third that he had to stop himself. He was right on that edge of being full, but the pizza had been so good he didn't want to miss out on having another slice.

"Did you want another piece or dessert?" Kakashi asked, as if sensing Iruka's dilemma. It prompted Iruka to think about a completely separate set of possibilities.

"Why are you making me choose?" Iruka teased. The idea of having to decide between such options was wracking his brain.

"You can have both, I'll get you whatever you want," Kakashi told Iruka, and Iruka believed it.

"I don't need either," Iruka fell back into his old tendencies. It didn't feel right. He'd never been good at wanting things. He remembered right after he moved in with them, Kushina worked really hard with him to voice when he wanted something. He'd gotten better at it, but when he had to turn around and take care of Naruto, Iruka started to understand how one person might forego what they wanted for someone else.

"I'll be right back," Iruka excused himself from the table, barely hearing as Kakashi tried to call after him.

Iruka went to the restroom to get a moment alone. He no longer knew what to think of this situation anymore. This whole night had progressed as if he and Kakashi were really dating, but they weren't. This was something fake, or at least something very complicated. Iruka knew he had to go out there and offer to pay for his fair share of the meal, that's what he'd do if it was any of his friends. This was close enough to that, right?

By the time Iruka got back to the table he saw that the pizza was boxed up and the waiter was dropping off two items, dessert and the check.

He sat back down at the table and started to go for his wallet when Kakashi stopped him.

"I already paid," Kakashi said, slipping the card back into his own wallet. He signed the bill then gestured to the spoon sitting in front of Iruka, "Have some, I can't eat it all."

He looked at the warm chocolate cake sitting in between them with a scoop of already melting ice cream dangerously perched on top. Iruka didn't know what to think. Had Kakashi gotten this because of him?

Iruka was stuck. Kakashi had paid and gotten dessert that Iruka thought looked pretty delicious. It was all too much.

"What is this?" Iruka asked.

"A chocolate molten lava cake," Kakashi answered. It was too easy of an answer, and Kakashi had to know that it wasn't what Iruka had meant with his question.

"No. I mean this," Iruka gestured to them, "Dinner, you paying for it too. What is this?"

"A date."

"A date?"

"Yeah, I thought we were dating."

"I didn't think it meant this," Iruka replied.

"Do you not like this?" Kakashi looked like a wounded animal.

"No, I do... I just... I'm not good at this," Iruka admitted.

"That's okay, I'm not good at it either," Kakashi confided

Iruka chuckled, he felt his eyes go a little misty. He didn't really understand, but Kakashi was trying to make it better.

Kakashi reached for Iruka's hand, "Is that ok?"

Iruka nodded.

"Good," Kakashi agreed, " Now let's eat this before all of the ice cream melts.

Iruka smiled and started digging into the cake as if racing Kakashi to eat it all.

* * *

Iruka still occasionally checked in on the fan sites, wanting to see how things were going.

Their news was no longer tabloid worthy and that was what Iruka cared about the most.

To the fansites his romance was no longer the top news, but since he was now famous adjacent there were a few articles and pictures floating around from the few dates that he and Kakashi had been on.

Fansites were at least supportive of it, but there was some definite drama over the fact that he was now dating his boss.

**Naruto's Brother's Work Secret**   
_Iruka, brother of famed singer Naruto, has been seen dating the mystery man first mentioned in previous articles. Information on this man is that he is Iruka's boss. It's surprising that they would flaunt their relationship so casually out in the open._

Well it was still better than the fans thinking he was dating Naruto, and it seemed to keep them interested enough in something to not pry too hard into the photos that were taken of Hinata.

Naruto had already been told to keep out of public, which he hoped would stick.

_"Tsunade's so harsh!" Naruto groaned as he slurped up half his bowl of ramen._

_"What's wrong?" Iruka asked. Naruto had been begging him to ask, but he was genuinely curious what Tsunade was causing Naruto to complain about now._

_"She told me 'No going out to eat with Hinata!'" Naruto mimicked Tsunade's demeanor with a practiced skill._

_"Well it's probably for the best," Iruka agreed, taking another sip from his bowl. He never tried to race Naruto. The only problem with that was Naruto would keep ordering if Iruka was still eating, and that hurt his wallet. Iruka's only saving grace was that Naruto talked enough to let Iruka eat in peace most nights._

_"Not you too..." Naruto whined._

_"Naruto," Iruka reprimanded him, "It's safer for both of you to just stay home and have dinner in. You're not the only famous one in this relationship, even if most people wouldn't recognize her on the streets, if your fans saw you two, Hinata would have the same trouble I did."_

_Naruto slumped to the table, "I know, I just want to take her out to nice places..."_

_Iruka smiled at the thought, "You can do that soon. It's really not that far off."_

_Naruto smiled back before gulping down the rest of his bowl and ordering another one while Iruka continued to eat his own. He would let Naruto order as many as he wanted tonight._

Now Naruto was out of town supposedly working on a new album, so there was no news to be had.

* * *

Iruka and Kakashi had gone out half a dozen times since that first date. The weekdays varied based on how much work Kakashi had or even what meetings had been scheduled for the next day, but Saturday nights had become a constant for a night out. Almost everything they did was out in public. It was done on purpose to fool those that were looking for them and continuing to keep the news away from Naruto.

So as usual they went out on that warm Saturday. Iruka had gotten picked up by Kakashi earlier that day and they spent a little time around downtown mostly window shopping. He'd finally started to relax around Kakashi. Too often Iruka felt concerned that he wasn't doing something right or realized this was just for show, but recently he'd started feeling like he made a good friend at least. They could talk about almost anything, work, friends, or hobbies. Family was still a bit of a stilted conversation, but Iruka had learned enough to know that Kakashi had lost both of his parents when he was younger too, which was probably why he was so curious about Iruka's own family.

Iruka continued to let Kakashi pick the places they went for dinner so it was when they pulled up towards Naruto's apartment complex that Iruka started to wonder what was going on.

"What are we doing here?" Iruka asked. Naruto was still out on his recording trip so Iruka hadn't been here in a few weeks.

"I thought dinner in might be nice since we've been going out so much," Kakashi explained as he pulled into the underground garage.

"Ohh, right," Iruka had almost forgotten that Kakashi lived here too. He'd gotten so used to it being Naruto's apartment that it still registered as that first.

"Is that ok?" Kakashi questioned, his voice wavering with a hint of nervousness.

"Yeah, I think that sounds nice." Iruka smiled to let Kakashi know that he had nothing to worry about.

Kakashi smiled back and led them both up to his apartment. Iruka looked back at Naruto's door as Kakashi unlocked his and encouraged Iruka to follow him.

As soon as Iruka walked through the door he could smell a delicious aroma.

"I set up my slow cooker so the food would be ready for us when we got home," Kakashi said in response to Iruka sniffing at the smell.

Iruka paused at the word home. Kakashi didn't seem to notice what he'd said, so Iruka tried to ignore it as well.

"What would you have done if I hadn't wanted to come up for dinner?" Iruka wondered.

Kakashi shrugged, "Pack it for lunch and torture you to what you missed out on."

Iruka laughed.

"Were you going to say no?" Iruka could tell Kakashi had been concerned about that possibility. He wondered if Kakashi had been thinking about it all day.

Iruka shook his head, "No," he answered in a whisper.

He never said it out loud, but Iruka hoped Kakashi knew that he enjoyed his company and their time together.

Their eyes met and Kakashi held his gaze before smiling and turning away. "I'm going to start the rice and then we can pick out a movie to watch."

Iruka nodded silently, took off his jacket, and moved into the living room. It was strange to be in an apartment that almost mirrored Naruto's. It didn't have the same life that Naruto's had though. Kakashi's apartment was sparse. There were no photos, few keepsakes, and almost no color. It didn't hold much comfort to Iruka, but he supposed that Kakashi spent little time here, so what need was there for it to be comforting?

Continuing through the space, Iruka could tell everything had its place and there was nothing that wasn't exactly where it was supposed to be. The coffee table had two controls neatly lined up against the edge of the table and had a single coaster in the opposite corner.

In all of the space there was only one thing that didn't seem to fit. One small plant with a label naming it Mr. Ukki sat in the center of the dining table. It was the only thing that wasn't perfect.

When Iruka sat down on the couch to wait for Kakashi, he sat just barely on the edge of the seat, too afraid to mess anything up in the pristine apartment. It wasn't long until Kakashi came over and sat down in the middle of the three seater sofa, close but not quite touching Iruka.

"Any requests?" Kakashi asked as he started up his television and started to page through the movies available to them.

Iruka shook his head. He wasn't too particular about movies, he kind of just watched anything whether it was good or bad. Besides it was Kakashi's place so it only felt fair to let him choose.

Kakashi hovered over a few choices, seeming to read their descriptions thoroughly, as Iruka studied him instead. Iruka was so distracted watching Kakashi didn't even realize that the movie started until the music started to play. When Kakashi glanced at him, Iruka flushed and turned back towards the screen to watch the movie instead of Kakashi.

It took less than ten minutes for Iruka to realize that Kakashi had turned on a horror film. Iruka had been too lenient. Horror movies were not his thing and it was far too late to tell Kakashi now how much they freaked him out.

The first time he jumped it was because the movie set up the perfect jump scare moment. It was even a joke within the movie that the characters had all jumped at the cat that had been the culprit all along. The second time Iruka jumped was when the timer for the rice went off in the middle of a particularly tense scene.

They paused the movie as Kakashi got up to take care of their food and Iruka tried to calm his heart rate. When Kakashi brought back the bowl of curry for Iruka, he looked at the white couch and wondered how he was supposed to eat without spilling all over it.

"Are you sure we shouldn't eat at the table?" Iruka asked, hoping that Kakashi shared the same concerns.

"It's fine, I'm not that worried," Kakashi said sitting back down next to Iruka, imperceptibly closer than before.

"I am..." Iruka mumbled under his breath, but went ahead and ate with Kakashi's approval.

Iruka's first bite was unbelievable. He ate a second to see if it was really that amazing or he was just imagining it.

"This is really good," Iruka blurted out. He hadn't expected much, but that was probably based on the fact that he couldn't cook, and it wasn't fair that he judged Kakashi on his own standards. He’d always been under the misconception that men who lived alone couldn't cook.

"Thanks," Kakashi looked genuinely pleased, "It's a family recipe."

Kakashi turned back to the movie, undoubtedly assuming Iruka wanted to watch it instead of talking. Iruka however used the food as an excuse to avoid watching the movie for as long as possible. Unfortunately or fortunately, Iruka had yet to decide which, the food was so good that he finished it faster than he'd intended. He put the bowl down on the coffee table and sat back on the couch. He figured if he was going to be uncomfortable with the movie subject he could at least be comfortable on the couch. Since he could see that Kakashi didn't treat it with the same delicacy, Iruka figured he couldn't do that much harm by just sitting on it.

It didn't take long for Iruka's feet to make their way up to the couch as well. He had his knees up so he could shield himself from the scary images and jumps that they continued to pepper in throughout the rest of the movie.

"Are you ok?" Kakashi asked after a particularly bad scene where they'd done a fake out with the music, then continued on to have the monster scare the audience only moments later.

Iruka didn't really know how to respond to Kakashi. Was he ok? Physically, yes... Emotionally, not so much. Iruka nodded and kept his face buried in his knees.

A hand started to rub circles on his back. "I can turn it off," Kakashi offered.

Iruka shook his head, and spoke from his safe spot, "It's okay, I want you to get to see it."

Iruka felt Kakashi lean over into his space as a small kiss was pressed to his head. "You're too nice."

Iruka looked up to Kakashi whose face was a mixed half smile, half frown.

They started at each other for a moment, then Kakashi leaned over again and kissed Iruka.

It wasn't their first kiss. Far from it, but it was the first kiss Kakashi had initiated when they weren't in public. And it was the first kiss that was more than just a kiss.

Kakashi pulled away when Iruka didn't kiss back. He put a hand to Iruka's cheek and thumbed it while he watched Iruka.

Iruka wasn't sure what came over him, but he leaned in to return Kakashi's kiss. At first it was a series of small quick kisses, that then morphed into longer drawn out kisses. Kisses where they had to stop for air in between.

When Kakashi pulled away Iruka's brain caught up to what had just happened.

What were they doing? What was this? This didn't seem like what they'd agreed to. Not that Iruka didn't want it, but how was this pretending anymore?

"I have to go..." he excused himself and pushed himself away from Kakashi.

"Iruka?" Kakashi questioned, watching Iruka put on his shoes and practically run out the door.

Iruka shut the door behind him and tried to think.

"Iruka?" Naruto's voice drifted across the hallway.

"Shit," Iruka cursed under his breath.

"What are you doing here?" his brother asked him. He had a bag at his side and his hand was on the keypad to let him into his apartment.

"I... um... I was-" Iruka couldn't even find the words to lie.

The door behind him opened, and Iruka jumped away from Kakashi who appeared on the other side.

"Iruka, you forgot this," Kakashi held out a jacket to him that Iruka must have left behind in his hurry to leave. Iruka could barely look at Kakashi, who didn't seem mad, but he did look disappointed.

"Who...what?" Naruto's eyes went wide as he pointed at Kakashi and looked at Iruka with deep accusation.

Iruka chose to ignore Naruto and focus on his first problem. He grabbed his jacket from Kakashi, his face about to combust into flames as he thought about how awkward this was about to get.

"Are you ok," Kakashi asked, who also seemed to be ignoring Naruto's presence.

Iruka tried to smooth back his hair. It didn't feel any different than normal, but he felt paranoid that it was all over the place after their make out session. He was just praying that Naruto was oblivious enough to ignore all the signs of what they had been doing.

"I'm fine, it just got late. I thought I should head home," Iruka explained. He wasn't wrong, but it definitely wasn't the reason he'd run away.

"Is this the guy you're dating?" Naruto interrupted.

Iruka looked at Naruto then turned to Kakashi. Kakashi's face was hopeful, almost as if he was afraid Iruka would say no. It wouldn't do any good to go back on what he'd already told Naruto.

"Yes. I guess I should introduce you. Narut-"

"I know who he is," Naruto cut in, "you can't date him!"

"Naruto!" Iruka yelled back before putting a hand over his own mouth. He didn't realize how loud they were being.

"What? He's a jerk, and you deserve better!" Naruto was still being loud and Iruka was about ready to push him into his apartment before people started to come out of their apartments to watch or tell them to be quiet.

"Naruto! Keep it down..." Iruka hissed.

Naruto growled at Iruka's command. He crossed his arms and glared at Kakashi like a spoiled child.

"Kakashi has been nothing but kind to me, and you shouldn't say things like that about people you don't know.

"What?" Naruto seemed inscenced by Iruka's statement. "How can he be nice? I know you've closed the elevator doors on me." Naruto pointed at Kakashi before turning back to Iruka to tell him all the horrible things he thought about Kakashi. "He ignores me every time I try to say hello or be polite. And I'm also pretty sure he's the one complaining that my TV is too loud."

Iruka frowned at the list. Kakashi had warned him that Naruto wasn't his biggest fan, but this was more than Kakashi had told him.

"Naruto..." Iruka knew his brother was one of the friendliest people out there, but he had to defend Kakashi before it got too out of hand.

"I didn't send any noise complaints," Kakashi interjected, "I can't hear anything from your apartment." Iruka appreciated Kakashi's attempt to reason with Naruto.

"But...who?" Naruto wondered. Iruka was glad that Naruto focused on the one complaint about Kakashi that they could prove wasn't him.

"Naruto, you have neighbors on four other sides of you, it could have easily been any or all of them," Iruka reminded him, "I've seen how you play your video games, it gets pretty loud."

Naruto smiled with a guilty laugh, "I guess that's true..."

Iruka sighed, at least that was enough to diffuse the Naruto and Kakashi situation. With a calmer Naruto, Iruka felt he might actually be able to leave now and get away from the awkward situation with Kakashi.

"I should probably head out, but we can get ramen later this week when you're not busy," Iruka offered to Naruto. He leaned in for a hug and said a quick bye to both men before heading down the hallway towards the elevator. He was hoping Kakashi would take it for what it was and let him leave without a scene.

When footsteps followed behind him Iruka knew he couldn't be that lucky. The elevator binged its presence, but before Iruka could get on and get away Kakashi slid into the elevator next to him.

"Let me drive you home?" Kakashi offered.

"I'd rather walk," Iruka responded without thinking about how snippy it sounded. Kakashi tensed up, and Iruka knew he had to rephrase. "I just meant, it's really not that far, and I don't think it makes sense for you to drive me. I always walk home when I come to visit Naruto."

Iruka left the elevator and walked out of the lobby while Kakashi continued to follow him.

"Iruka wait!," Kakashi called, "The person who tried to run you over a few weeks ago is probably still out there watching you, I'd feel better if you'd let me drive you home."

Iruka looked around. There weren't any cars that seemed familiar, most of them were just driving along the street. He couldn't really imagine that person continuing to watch him. "I'm sure they've moved on by now."

"Iruka, please..." Kakashi begged him to listen.

Iruka knew he'd already given in by the time he looked back at Kakashi. He stood there with more concern for Iruka, than Iruka had for himself, and that alone made Iruka want to let him win.

"Ok," Iruka relented. He never did like fighting.

Kakashi led the way to his car in relative silence with only the sound of the passing cars to break up the tension between them.

They were in the car and Kakashi was on his way before he finally asked what Iruka had been dreading to talk about. "Why did you run out?"

"I didn't," Iruka said automatically without thinking about how much it was a lie, but he didn't know how to cover up for it. "I just realized how late it was and wanted to get home."

Iruka watched Kakashi gripped the wheel tight. He was glad Kakashi had to watch the road so they didn't have to look at each other.

"Iruka... If I did something you're uncomfortable with, you have to tell me."

"I..." Iruka was at a loss for words. It was the exact opposite that had scared him. Iruka liked it when they kissed. He liked it far more than he should have for some pretend relationship. If this was all fake why were they even kissing when they were alone?

Kakashi pulled up to Iruka's apartment, and Iruka was about to bolt before the car even stopped. Before he could get out of the car Kakashi put a tentative hand on his knee to get Iruka's attention. Iruka stopped and finally looked at Kakashi for the first time since they'd gotten in the car.

"In the future I won't do anything unless you ask," Kakashi promised.

Iruka nodded in agreement. It sounded like a good idea. If he never asked, then Kakashi would never know that he wanted more than this thing between them.

"I'll see you Monday then," Iruka offered before getting out of the car. He forced a smile for Kakashi as a show that everything was good between them. After he closed the door he walked towards his apartment and Kakashi sat in the car watching him. He'd always done that to make sure Iruka made it into his apartment before he drove away.

Once Iruka was safely inside his apartment he threw himself down on his couch wanting to forget everything that had happened that night.

Well... maybe not forget. Iruka wanted to remember it all. The way that Kakashi had cooked for him, how they'd kissed. He enjoyed those kisses, but they weren't for him...they couldn't be. They had made this arrangement as a cover so how could they be real? But Iruka still wanted to store the almost perfect night into the back recesses of his memory. It could stay buried back there for him to remember some other time, but for now he was going to try and push the memories aside so he wouldn't be sad when it was all gone.


	4. Chapter 4

When Monday came around, Iruka had gotten over his concerns from Saturday night. He was sure that everything would be normal with Kakashi again if he just let it be normal.

When he got to work, Kakashi was waiting there just the same as he had for the last few weeks. The only thing different was that Kakashi didn't lean in for the usual morning kiss. Instead he just smiled and walked in with him.

Iruka wasn't heart broken. No, he had been the one that wanted this. But it hurt- it hurt more than it should have.

Their conversations during work were no different than normal, but it almost felt as if there was a barrier between them. Kakashi stayed further away from Iruka than he had been recently and even a little further than before they started this arrangement.

This separation continued through the week. Each date they went on was more like what Iruka had originally envisioned this agreement to be, two friends hanging out for dinner a few times a week. There were no accidental touches, no kisses, nothing that signified anything romantic. Kakashi continued his insistence to pay for everything, but that was one of the only things that didn't feel as if it had changed. The problem was once Iruka had gotten used to Kakashi being close it felt wrong for them to be so distant.

"Kakashi, do you want to stop this?" Iruka asked one evening. He hadn't really intended to ask, but he felt like it had gone on for too long.

They were sitting outside of an ice cream shop they'd stopped at after dinner, and Kakashi looked as if he was about to drop his spoon.

"What?"

Iruka was staring at the cone in his hand, not able to look at Kakashi for this next part. "Do you want to stop going out?" Iruka asked again before rushing into an explanation, "I mean it just seems like something's wrong lately. You pay for everything, and I don't understand why you'd want to keep doing this. You get nothing out of this arrangement."

"Iruka..." Kakashi tried to call Iruka's attention, but he couldn't stop himself.

"I just don't understand, and I'm sorry I got you into this..."

"How did you get me into this, I'm the one who suggested it to you," Kakashi reminded him.

Iruka looked up, Kakashi looked as confused as he felt. Why did Kakashi suggest this whole thing?

Kakashi's hand raised to Iruka's cheek, hovering, but not quite touching his skin. "What's wrong Iruka?" Kakashi asked.

"That..." Iruka indicated Kakashi's hand as he sandwiched it against his cheek with his own hand. It was cold from holding onto the cup of ice cream, but it warmed up next to Iruka's skin.

"I-" Kakashi blushed and looked away, but didn't try to pull back his hand. "I thought you didn't want me to touch you after that night," Kakashi admitted.

"No," Iruka replied, "I was scared..."

"Scared of what?"

Iruka hesitated, not sure if he was willing to admit it to Kakashi, but it was already so weird between them that he didn't think he could make it worse.

"Of liking it too much?" Iruka offered.

They were stopped. Frozen in time as Kakashi processed Iruka's words. Iruka waited wishing he'd never said anything.

Before Iruka could try and say anything to backtrack, Kakashi was leaning over the table to kiss him.

Iruka barely realized what had happened when Kakashi pulled back.

"Sorry, I said I wouldn't do that," Kakashi berated himself.

"Don't-"

"Shit," Kakashi cussed under his breath.

"No. Don't be sorry," Iruka continued.

He grabbed Kakashi's hand to squeeze it, "Maybe just not in front of so many people next time," Iruka requested. He was already feeling self conscious of all the people who were staring at them.

Kakashi finished his ice cream in record time and got up encouraging Iruka to follow him. Iruka tossed out the rest of his remaining ice cream and followed Kakashi back to his car.

"Did you want to come to my place?" Kakashi asked after they'd gotten into the car.

"No," Iruka thought about how Naruto had caught them last time. He wasn't ready for a repeat incident. "We could go to mine though," Iruka offered.

Kakashi's face lit up. He'd looked as though he expected Iruka to reject him again before his alternate suggestion.

As they drove Kakashi kept a hand on Iruka's knee, and Iruka put his own on top.

When his apartment came into view, Iruka's stomach burst into butterflies. He still wasn't quite sure what was happening here, but it felt like they both wanted more.

Kakashi followed him to the door, standing just a little too close as Iruka tried to unlock it. Iruka felt a hand rest on his waist as they waited, and he almost dropped his keys in surprise.

It felt like forever between when Iruka got his key into the lock and when the door to his apartment finally opened. He welcomed Kakashi into the space and turned on a light before closing the door behind them.

Iruka could feel Kakashi's warmth at his side, arms wrapping their way around him, and Kakashi's strong chin settling on his shoulder.

He shivered when he felt Kakashi's warm breath on the side of his neck and placed his keys on a hook before he lost them.

"I-I uhh," Iruka felt like his brain had turned off. He felt himself moving towards the couch, pulling Kakashi along with him. Kakashi let him sit down before sitting down next to him, much closer than they had been when they were on Kakashi's couch together.

"Iruka," Kakashi whispered in his ear. The sound made Iruka feel like jelly, ready to melt into him.

Iruka turned towards Kakashi and leaned in for a tentative kiss. It was simple, but once they'd broken that barrier, the kisses came faster and deeper. Iruka had to break away more than once to breathe. Kakashi hauled Iruka into his lap and started to run his hands along Iruka’s sides as they kissed. Kakashi pulled away, leaned into Iruka's neck, and started to place kisses along the way. He tugged at the neck of Iruka's shirt and kissed some more. Slowly the kisses turned into nips and sucks as if Kakashi was trying to mark his territory. After one particular bite, Iruka was certain he would have a mark the next day.

A hand slipped under Iruka's shirt and the skin on skin felt as if it was burning him. He jerked away from the touch and Kakashi removed his hand.

"Are you ok?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka put his forehead to Kakashi's and nodded. "Too much," his breathy response was barely audible over his panting. He was almost too afraid to move because it would certainly cause him to rub his own arousal against Kakashi's.

Iruka leaned back, "Sorry..." he apologized for stopping them.

"Don't apologize," Kakashi said as he tucked a lock of stray hair behind Iruka's ear. He closed the distance between them for a chaste kiss, before relaxing back against the couch.

Iruka tried to figure out where he should go because he couldn't imagine that him sitting on Kakashi's lap was all that comfortable for Kakashi.

He wriggled from side to side to see his options, and Kakashi hissed, "Maybe let's not do that," Kakashi asked. Iruka could see his cheeks flushed in embarrassment and arousal, but he wasn't sure which one was winning.

Iruka jumped up from the couch wanting to say sorry again, but bit his tongue instead remembering Kakashi's admonishment.

Kakashi sat up and tugged down on his shirt from where it had started hiking up after being pushed up against the couch.

"I'll uhh, be right back," Iruka said before going to the kitchen to put some tea to boil. It was the only thing he could think to do that would be less awkward than staring at Kakashi after what they'd been doing.

"Is everything alright?" Kakashi asked following him to the kitchen.

Iruka nodded, "I'm fine. It was just a little too much too fast," Iruka commented with a slight smile. Kakashi leaned over with a kiss to his forehead.

"This can be as slow as you need," Kakashi assured him and grabbed his hand with a squeeze.

Iruka squeezed back, "Thank you."

They sat back on the couch with their tea and talked until it got late enough that Kakashi had to leave.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

Iruka nodded and they kissed good night.

He didn't want to jinx anything, but this was starting to feel so real and he wanted to hold onto every moment.

* * *

Iruka and Kakashi had more dates at home as the week passed. Kakashi cooked and Iruka watched. They ended many nights with a lengthy make out, but they still weren't ready for it to go any further than that.

When Thursday rolled around Iruka got a text midday.

_Drinks tonight?_

He'd been kind of absent from most of his friends' drinking outings lately since he was so wrapped up in his dates with Kakashi, but Kakashi had already told him he was busy tonight so Iruka was happy to spend it with his friends rather than alone.

 _Only if you're paying,_ he wrote back, fairly certain he'd get his way.

 _Fine, but only the first round. You can't be trusted with an unlimited offer._ Iruka chuckled at his phone. He really wasn't a heavy drinker, but he'd been known to take advantage of free alcohol.

"What's so funny?" Kakashi questioned from the doorway to his office.

Iruka looked him up and down and had to stop himself from thinking anything inappropriate while they were still at work.

He looked around to make sure nobody was watching him make a fool of himself.

"Some friends asked if I wanted to join them for drinks tonight, and since I've been a bit... preoccupied lately, I said yes," Iruka explained, "You said you were busy right?" Iruka hoped that Kakashi hadn't changed his plans. Even in a normal relationship people had their own friends that they would go out with alone.

"I am," he replied. He stood up from the door jam and walked over to Iruka's desk, leaning over with intent as he stared into Iruka's eyes until he got very close and whispered into Iruka's ear, "I'm sure I'll be thinking of you the entire time though."

Iruka knew his face had gone red as a tomato, and could only pray that nobody had witnessed their discussion. He had never expected Kakashi to say anything that suggestive at work.

"I'll let you finish up your work so you can leave on time," Kakashi noted before leaving Iruka alone to his thoughts, as if Iruka had any brain cells left after their exchange.

* * *

Kakashi was out of the office early, leaving Iruka to wonder where exactly he was going. He'd been told he was busy, but Kakashi never said what he was busy with.

When quitting time came, Iruka shut down everything and wandered down to the lobby to meet his friends.

"We've got a cool new place to try out," Genma told him as they walked the opposite direction from their normal bar.

"Sure, I love trying new things..." Iruka teased. They all knew he was not the most adventurous when it came to new food and drinks, but he'd been getting a lot of practice with Kakashi lately.

They found a spot in the bar area that was big enough for the four of them and looked at the menu. It was quite a bit fancier than their usual place, and that meant everything cost extra too.

After Genma bought the first round they offered to share the expense by ordering a round each.

"So, Iruka who have you been ignoring us for?" Izumo asked after they started their third round of drinks.

"What are you talking about?" Iruka was partially trying to deflect, but was also wondering how they would even know he was with someone.

"Well the love bites sure don't help at keeping something like that a secret," Kotetsu pointed out.

Iruka clasped his hand over the one that he'd pointed at, remembering that Kakashi had given him that one earlier.

"Just someone, it's not serious yet." It wasn't quite a lie, and it hurt Iruka to say it.

"Fine, fine... but we need to know when it is," Izumo said, "we have to be able to properly tease you about it."

Iruka smiled and laughed with them, hoping that he would be able to tell them one day.

After they ordered their fourth round, Genma nudged Iruka.

"Hey, isn't that Kakashi?" he asked Iruka pointing to a small table on the side of the room.

Iruka looked, but it was Kotetsu that responded, "It definitely is, and I think he's on a date."

Unfortunately Kotetsu was right, Kakashi definitely looked like he was out on a date.

The restaurant attached was fairly nice, just like most of the places that Kakashi took him.

Iruka's heart sank when he saw how Kakashi looked talking to this guy. He looked happy, Iruka didn't think he'd ever seen him look that way when they were together.

"Guess you missed your chance Iruka," Genma teased.

"Yeah..." Iruka wanted to deny it, wanted to tell them it was Kakashi who'd given him the hickey. He wanted to prove to everyone that they'd been dating for almost two months, but he just couldn't deny what he was seeing.

Iruka tossed back his drink and left his friends gawking at the two.

If Kakashi was on a date then what had they been doing all this time?

Iruka was trying to puzzle it all together as he walked back to his apartment, still a bit wobbly from the amount of drinks.

Maybe it was a relative Iruka thought, but he and Kakashi had talked about Kakashi's family briefly. His parents had died when he was young, and he was an only child so there were no siblings to be had.

A friend? Iruka hypothesized, but then remembered that look. Iruka wondered if Kakashi was really that good of an actor, when they went out together he made it seem like he wanted to date Iruka.

Iruka settled on his final conclusion that he must be a substitute for this guy. Iruka could only imagine why, maybe he was already taken, or not gay, and Kakashi took the opportunity to use Iruka as a replacement.

As Iruka neared his apartment he realized that a car was following along with him at his minimal speed. He looked over hoping that maybe, just maybe, it'd be Kakashi. He could have seen Iruka storm out of the restaurant and then followed him home just to make sure he got there safely, but when Iruka looked it wasn't Kakashi's car.

When Iruka took in the car he realized that it was the same one that had almost run him over that night almost two months ago. The idea sobered him up and he turned around and started racing towards Kakashi's apartment.

It wasn't until he got to Kakashi's front door that he realized what he'd done. When had Kakashi become a safe place for him?

He didn't even know if Kakashi was home yet.

As Iruka saw it he had two choices. Go ahead and knock on Kakashi's door, or he could hide out in Naruto's place.

He chickened out and knocked on Naruto's door.

When the door opened, it wasn't Naruto who answered, but Hinata, "Iruka?" she asked, looking at him confused.

"Hinata!" Iruka responded in surprise. She was dressed in a pair of pajamas, and Iruka was now worried he'd interrupted something, "I'm sorry, I'll go. I didn't mean to impose."

"Iruka?" Naruto's sleepy voice called out before Iruka could take a step.

Iruka turned to see his brother and started to cry uncontrollably.

"Iruka!" Naruto grabbed Iruka and pulled him into his apartment and held him in a hug until he calmed down.

He led Iruka towards a chair and sat down at the table with him as Hinata went to the kitchen, "What happened?"

"Nothing," Iruka wiped his tears trying to pretend that nothing had happened, but it was far too late for that.

"Iruka..." Naruto took his hand, "Brothers can tell each other anything," he said. It was something that Iruka had used on him many times when he needed Naruto to open up about his problems.

Iruka laughed at the thought of Naruto using it against him now.

"Come on, please tell me. We're supposed to help each other."

Iruka sighed, and tried to parse together his night. He wasn't sure whether he should be telling Naruto about Kakashi or the stalker. Both lead him here, so it might finally be the time to tell Naruto everything.

"I saw Kakashi out with another guy-"

"How dare he!" Naruto jumped up from the table as if he was about to go give Kakashi a fight. Iruka caught his arm before he could get too far.

"Naruto. We aren't really dating."

"What? How?" He looked extremely confused.

"Sit down..." Iruka encouraged Naruto to sit back down with him.

Hinata came back to the table with a few mugs of tea and looked at Iruka to see whether she should stay or go. He waved to tell her to stay with them, even if it was only to keep Naruto calm.

"It started when I was getting harassed by one of your fans. I didn't want to worry you, and Kakashi suggested that we should pretend to date so that they would leave me alone. I guess I'd just forgotten that it was all fake until I saw him with someone else..." Iruka explained their circumstances.

"He still shouldn't be seeing someone else." Iruka could see Naruto practically vibrating from anger.

Iruka looked at Hinata almost afraid to talk about the next part, but he knew it needed to be said. "There's something else... I was followed home from the bar by someone. I'm pretty sure it's the person who started the rumors about us dating."

"Ehh, they aren't all that bad, Iruka. I know getting your picture taken can be a bit frustrating, bu-"

"Naruto." Iruka cut in. His brother gave him a confused look. "I haven't been completely honest with you about your fans." Iruka looked down at the tea in his hand.

"I've been trying to keep this quiet because I don't want to scare you. but your fans have stepped out of line with me. One of them sent me a threatening letter, and tried to hit me with their car."

Hinata gasped, and grabbed onto Naruto's hand. Naruto frowned.

"I'm pretty sure that was the same car that followed me tonight," Iruka added.

"You should have told me," Naruto said, his blue eyes piercing Iruka with concern.

"I didn't want you to worry... I didn't want to scare Hinata," he said looking at them both.

"I appreciate you trying to help, but I won't scare away that easily," Hinata responded, "We're more worried about you." She reached out her other hand for Iruka's. They were each holding each other's hand and Iruka realized how happy he was that Naruto had found Hinata.

"This person is the reason Kakashi offered to date me. After we sent the correction out to the tabloids and we started going out the harassment stopped. Tonight's the first time I've seen them in almost two months."

"Hmmm..." Naruto thought about what Iruka was saying, "Are you ok? You weren't hurt were you?"

Iruka shrugged, "I'm ok, I guess. They didn't hurt me, but they know where I live and I didn't feel comfortable going home. I kind of came here out of instinct."

"You know you've always been welcome to stay here, you should sleep in the guest room tonight," Naruto said getting up and stretching.

"No, that's ok. I can head home now. I feel a lot better," Iruka replied. He knew they said it was okay, but he still felt like he was intruding on Hinata and Naruto's night, even if they had only been sleeping.

"Iruka," Naruto reprimanded him, "I will not let you go home after you tell me all that. You're going to sleep over, and I'll work with Tsunade tomorrow to see what we can do to make sure you're safe."

Iruka got up from the table and hugged Naruto. Naruto hugged him back before leading him towards the guest room and handed him some clothes to sleep in for the evening.

It had been a pretty crazy night, but he was glad he could count on Naruto when he needed him.

* * *

Iruka woke up to the sound of his alarm on his phone and groaned realizing he still had work today. Last time he called out Kakashi came to his door, and he wasn't really looking forward to that happening again.

Neither Naruto or Hinata seemed to be up this early, so he found a notepad and wrote them to say he'd left for work, and to call him if they needed anything.

He put the note by the coffee maker and folded up the pajamas and left them on the bed.

When Iruka walked out of the door he saw Kakashi standing on the other side of the hallway leaving his own apartment.

"What a surprise. Good morning, Iruka," Kakashi said with a smile. Iruka had rarely seen that genuine smile and now he wasn't sure what to think of it.

"Hi," Iruka wasn't sure how to respond. He didn't have the energy to fake it today after everything that had happened last night. Maybe he should have stayed with Naruto and not worried about how Kakashi would react to him taking a day off.

"Are you ok?" Kakashi's brightened mood seemed to sour with Iruka's.

"I'm fine." Iruka knew he was being short with Kakashi, but if he elaborated he was certain to say something stupid.

Kakashi followed him to the elevators, both of them choosing to wait in silence instead of being the first to speak.

When the elevator arrived Iruka entered it and waited for Kakashi to join him before he pressed the button to take them to the bottom floor.

The secluded elevator seemed to be all that Kakashi needed before he started questioning Iruka.

"Why are you here this morning?"

"I told Naruto everything about us," Iruka didn't feel like lying about everything any more.

"Ohh..." Kakashi seemed concerned with that idea, but Iruka wasn't sure why he'd be so bothered.

"That fan followed me home last night, so I came here instead, and thought it was best to tell him everything."

"Why didn't you come to me?" Kakashi looked hurt that Iruka would choose Naruto over him.

"You weren't home," Iruka reminded him. He hadn't tried, but even if Iruka hadn't seen him out, he still knew Kakashi had been expecting to come home late last night.

Kakashi's lips were pursed with concern, "Can I at least drive you to work?" He gave the offer as if it would make up for the previous evening.

"You don't need to. I have to go home first anyway."

"I can take you there too."

The doors of the elevator opened to the lobby and Iruka walked out not sure what he felt like doing. He wasn't sure he wanted to spend more time alone with Kakashi right now, but it was probably the smarter option to go with him.

"Sure..." Iruka said following Kakashi towards his car.

When they got to Iruka's place Kakashi parked his car, "Should I come up or did you want me to wait out here?" he asked.

"You can go to work. I don't want you to be late," Iruka tried to get at least some of his time alone back.

"I feel like we already went through this. Isn't it better if I drive you?"

Iruka sighed, Kakashi was trying to be too nice. "Ok, I'll try to be done soon," he said, getting out of the car. "There's a coffee shop down the block if you want to wait there," Iruka said pointing at the block to the left.

Kakashi nodded and got out of the car to go towards the coffee shop as Iruka went to his home.

Iruka got into the shower and tried to not break down. Today was going to be rough.

* * *

"Dinner?" Kakashi asked out of nowhere.

Iruka looked around and realized the day had completely passed him by. There was nobody left in the office except for him and Kakashi.

"I don't think I'm up for that tonight," Iruka replied. He wasn't really in the mood to be around anyone, especially Kakashi.

"We could pick something up and eat at home?" Kakashi offered. He seemed so eager, and Iruka really couldn't understand why.

"I guess." It wasn't really much of a commitment, but Kakashi took it as a promising response.

Instead of taking Kakashi's car they decided to walk today. Kakashi had noticed a restaurant that morning when he was at the coffee shop and told Iruka he wanted to try it sometime. Iruka didn't realize he meant tonight.

After they got their food they continued towards Iruka's place. Kakashi was talking about something, but Iruka wasn't listening.

"Iruka..." His name barely broke through the fog.

"Iruka, is something bothering you?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm fine..." He tried to brush it off, Iruka was not in the mood to talk about this yet.

"It's pretty clear that you are not fine, Iruka," Kakashi replied, pushing for more from Iruka.

"Just leave it, Kakashi."

"I can't do that, I don't like seeing you this way."

"Then maybe you should date someone else!" Iruka blurted out.

They both stopped in their tracks. Iruka hadn't meant to say it, but given how he'd been feeling he wasn't exactly surprised either.

"Iruka?" Kakashi questioned him.

"I mean this is all just fake isn't it?" Iruka asked, "There's someone else you'd rather be dating right? What other reason would you offer to date me?"

"Iruka-" Kakashi tried to respond, but Iruka couldn't let him.

"No! I saw you last night. You looked so happy with that guy. It looked like you wanted to date him. I really don't want to be your substitute..." Iruka let out all his thoughts.

"You're not," Kakashi assured him.

"How am I supposed to believe that? I saw the way you looked at him... you've never looked at me that way."

"I..." Kakashi was speechless. He couldn't muster up anything to defend himself which made it easier for Iruka.

"I'm sorry that I agreed to this, I won't hold you back anymore."

Iruka took off towards his place, not caring if Kakashi yelled his name or not. He was blocking out the sounds around him, trying to ignore the fact that he completely caused a scene in the middle of the street. He sure didn't want to be around for the awkward stares afterwards.

When Iruka got home he locked himself in his room and cried himself to sleep.

He'd liked Kakashi even before they started going out on dates, and their time together only solidified how good they could be together, but it didn't seem like it was meant to be.

This was the only solution. Breaking it off with Kakashi was the right thing to do.


	5. Chapter 5

Iruka was glad it was the weekend. He'd at least have a few days to harden himself before having to see Kakashi again. He still had a job to do, so he wouldn't be able to avoid him for long. This was the reason it was bad to date someone you worked with.

After Iruka called Naruto to let him know that he'd broken off his relationship with Kakashi, Naruto managed to convince him to stay the weekend with him.

_"I don't want you to be alone," his voice dripping in pity even through the phone. "You stayed with me when I had my last breakup, so we should do the same for you."_

_"Naruto, I don't think that's a good idea. You guys live across the hall from each other..." Iruka reminded him._

_"So what. We're going to stay in all weekend and play video games to get your mind off of it, it'll just be a single in and out. I'll even scout the hallways ahead of you to make sure you don't run into him._

_Iruka laughed at his brother. It was a sweet gesture._

_"Please Iruka, it'd make me feel better," Naruto pleaded. He knew by now that Iruka was more likely to cave when it was about him. And Iruka fell for it knowing that Naruto had completely played him._

_"Ok, I'll call when I'm on my way."_

On Sunday morning while Iruka and Naruto were sitting at the table eating something for breakfast, Tsunade let herself into the apartment.

"Here," she said dropping a set of papers in front of Iruka.

"What's this?" he questioned putting down his toast.

"We used traffic camera footage to get information on the person who has been stalking you. That's a temporary restraining order for you against them. If-"

"You what!?" Iruka questioned, picking through the papers to understand what everything meant.

"Naruto gave me the details about the fan who has been harassing you. My job is to protect Naruto, and as his family you are included in that. I put you in that position, I will not see you hurt."

"You told her?" Iruka asked Naruto, torn by the news. He hadn't really wanted to share all of this information with Tsunade, but in a few days she'd done more for him than he'd done for himself in the last two months.

Naruto opened his mouth to talk, but Tsunade cut him off with a simple hand gesture. "Iruka this is serious. You should have told us immediately, or even called the police. What were you thinking?"

Iruka shrugged, "I don't know. I was scared," he admitted, "Scared that it'd just be something else for the fans to gossip over. And terrified because I thought if I said anything, Naruto would lose Hinata. I couldn't let that happen. I guess I just wasn't thinking it through."

"Iruka," Tsunade called his attention. She grabbed his hand and looked him in the eyes. She looked more vulnerable in that moment than he'd ever seen her. "If I had ever imagined that this would happen, we never would have lied to the the tabloids. I expected some pictures and some gossip articles, but that's all. I'm sorry that we put you through all this."

Iruka shook his head, "It's ok, you don't have to say sorry. And thanks for this..." he said noting the papers in front of him.

"Well as I was saying, we issued a temporary restraining order against the fan. The rest is up to you. We can make that a permanent one, and we can press charges against them for the threats that were made against you."

Iruka nodded, "I'll think about it." Tsunade nodded.

He started reading through the paperwork, as Naruto offered Tsunade a cup of coffee and sat down with them to discuss the next steps.

* * *

When Monday came around Iruka felt freer. The stalker situation had been dealt with and his time at Naruto's had been more relaxing than he thought. He only occasionally let his mind wander to thoughts of Kakashi and how he was just across the hallway. Still Iruka had some resolve to keep this separation between them so he decided to go to work early for the foreseeable future. It would give him more time to spend focusing on his work before Kakashi got there, and meant he could leave early as compared to Kakashi's habitual late nights.

When they were both in the office at the same time, Kakashi would try to get Iruka's attention throughout the day, but Iruka always had some excuse to get away. Most often it was to help someone, but he was going to run out of excuses eventually.

He only had to keep this up for a few more days before he'd get a break. With Naruto's wedding was just around the corner he'd be taking some time off. Iruka hadn't registered how fast the time had passed, but by the end of next weekend Naruto and Hinata would be married. By Thursday he'd be on a plane with Naruto and his band mates, who were his groomsmen, and they'd be on their way to the little resort where the wedding would be held on Saturday.

Each day was rough, but Iruka managed to make it through the three days. Kakashi hadn't done anything drastic and that meant Iruka was able to inch his way through the week until he took off.

Iruka hadn't decided whether it was a good thing that Kakashi hadn't been cornering him, or if he was a little disappointed that Kakashi wasn't pushing harder.

* * *

Iruka followed Naruto and his bandmates onto their private plane. He'd never gotten to go with them in the plane because he was always too busy with work, but it was possibly the coolest thing he'd ever done. They were trying to make it look like they were just going off to do more recording in the studio, but they would be going to the wedding destination instead.

Naruto and his group would be having the bachelor party in the town near the resort and Hinata had been planning a night out with her bridesmaids in the city. They would have an easier time blending into the city since it looked like just a group of models going out to celebrate something. It apparently happened all the time because Iruka heard Naruto complain at him when Hinata wasn't able to come over because of similar outings.

Iruka watched the band all disperse to their spots on the plane. It was interesting to see how comfortable they all were in this space. Kitsune was made up of Naruto and a few boys he'd known since he was a little kid. Iruka had known them just as long, and it was hard for him to imagine that they were all so famous now. These were the kids that would constantly get in trouble with Naruto and Iruka remembered watching Minato and Kushina dealing with them. Minato was far too nice to them all, letting them get away with almost anything, but if Kushina was the one that caught them getting into trouble it got scary...

Shikamaru sat down next to a window and reclined his seat even though Iruka was sure that wasn't allowed during take off, although he wasn't sure if private jets were different. Shika acted as though everything was so much trouble, yet he was always there for Naruto when things were tough. It made perfect sense that he played the bass in their band. He was like the steady heartbeat of the group. Kiba lounged across two chairs whining about leaving his dog with the pet sitter again. He normally took Akamaru with them on tour, but the wedding resort didn't have anywhere for Akamaru to stay so he had to leave him at home. Kiba was probably the most rambunctious next to Naruto, and he played the drums with the same tenacity. Last in the group was Chouji grabbing something to snack on before they left. He was always focused on food when they were little and it was easy to bribe him with something when Iruka needed details on what they'd gotten into. He played the guitar with Naruto most of the time and would back up Naruto's vocals occasionally. Naruto pat Iruka on the back and pulled him over to sit with him.

The plane took off the same way all his other flights had, but once they were in the air, the band was roaming freely through the cabin.

"Did you want a drink?" Naruto asked getting up from his own seat.

It wasn't supposed to be a long flight, but they were going to be checking into the hotel and going out immediately after that.

"Sure, we might as well get your bachelor party started," Iruka teased, getting a bit of a cheer from the other band members. Naruto smiled and disappeared for a moment. Iruka's thoughts went to Kakashi. He was curious what he was doing now. Probably at work, hopefully less caught up with trying to talk to him and able to spend more time on actual work. They'd never really talked about whether Kakashi would be coming with him to the wedding. The last two months had gone by fast, and the wedding was a secret, but now Iruka couldn't stop himself from thinking about Kakashi all dressed up for the occasion.

Naruto brought him his drink, pulling Iruka from his thoughts. He looked down at it and clinked glasses with Naruto before taking a large gulp hoping it might help him keep his thoughts on the present.

As soon as they landed they went straight for the hotel and checked in. They took their bags up to the suite that had a master bedroom and a room with two queen beds on the other side of a living room. They'd already decided that Iruka and Naruto would stay in the master bedroom. The others would have to argue over who shared a bed, or even if one of them would rather sleep on the couch. A few of them took the opportunity to get changed before they headed out for the night.

They went to dinner at a nice restaurant where everything was paid for at a set price. Iruka wondered if Naruto and his friends were used to this kind of food, because he sure wasn't. Even his dinners with Kakashi were never this opulent.

After dinner they found their way to a lounge with a VIP area that would allow them to enjoy the music with more privacy and a guaranteed seat.

Iruka didn't comprehend how fast the night was going until he was being held up by Naruto and they were walking back to the hotel. He'd been drinking anything that was given to him, and being with a group of rock stars that meant a lot of drinks. He remembered someone saying they should get some fresh air, and then all of a sudden they were walking, well stumbling in Iruka's case, back to the hotel.

Iruka pulled his arm to his face to focus on his watch to see what time it was, it took a bit to concentrate since it was bouncing with each step they took, but he was soon able to read the hour said 2 am. All Iruka could think was it was good that they had a day before the actual wedding or he wouldn't be making it through.

Naruto excused them into their room and pulled out Iruka's pajamas before getting himself ready for bed. Iruka got himself into his night clothes, drank a glass of water, and curled up under the covers. He hoped that Naruto had a good night, and prayed he hadn't ruined it by getting drunk.

Naruto got into the other side of bed as Iruka watched him.

"You ok Iruka?" Naruto questioned, probably more worried about how much he had to drink than anything else.

Iruka tried to nod because he thought he was ok, but his mind disagreed with him. His defenses were all down thanks to the alcohol and he just started crying. "I fucked up Naruto..."

"What? What happened?" Naruto asked, his blue eyes growing larger in concern.

"I let him go," Iruka wailed, "I don't think I meant to, but I ended it. He didn't even like me..."

"But you liked him," Naruto confirmed. Iruka couldn't stand the look of pity he was getting from his brother. He turned away from Naruto so he could cry without his sympathy.

Naruto scooted close to him to hold him until he stopped crying and fell asleep.

It was comforting, but it reminded him of a sadder time in their life. Iruka remembered doing the same thing for a young Naruto for months after Minato and Kushina died. Naruto couldn't sleep alone for almost a year, and Iruka couldn't fault him for it. Death was a tough thing to deal with at any age, but losing your parents young hurt so much. Iruka was glad that he'd been there for Naruto. They had a bond that was as strong as any blood relation, if not stronger. Forged through their mutual misfortune.

* * *

The first time Iruka woke up he was alone and there was far too much light in the room for how much his head hurt. He groaned as if to yell at the sun before pulling the covers over his head and falling back asleep.

Then next time he woke up it was because Naruto was shaking him awake.

"Come on, I've got some food coming up to the room," he said, far too chipper for Iruka's dreary dilapidated state, "After that we can see what other hangover cures this hotel has."

Iruka, certain that Naruto was laughing at him, grumbled and slowly got out of bed. He grabbed some lounging clothes and hopped into the shower to wash off the previous evening. It helped immensely with his hangover, but he was sure food would help even more.

He joined the group out in the shared living room just before food arrived. Iruka had the worst hangover of the bunch, but Chouji grumbled that he'd been starving all morning.

"So, Iruka...not much of a partier are you?" Kiba teased him.

"He kept up with you, that's something," Shikamaru countered.

"Hey, be nice to my brother! Besides he's older than all of us, so I think he did pretty good," Naruto chimed in before Iruka could. Iruka was definitely running a little slower than all of them.

Before anyone else could further debate Iruka drinking prowess, there was a knock on the door.

Naruto bounced over to the door and let them bring in the cart of food to their kitchenette bar.

Iruka couldn't believe that Naruto was so springy after their night out. He was the bachelor, wasn't he supposed to be the one with the hangover?

A glass of water appeared in front of Iruka. "It'll help," Shikamaru said before he turned his attention to the food.

Iruka downed the glass of water as he observed the massive amount of food in the room. At least they had a fridge if they couldn't finish it all.

The boys started eating, and Iruka was amazed at how fast they all polished off the food. He thought it'd be enough for the next morning even, but they ate every scrap of food.

"We've got the rehearsal right before dinner, but I was gonna go down to the pool for the rest of the day," Naruto said.

All Iruka could think about was the amount of sun that would mean, but a refreshing dip in the pool or even relaxing in the spa sounded pretty nice.

Everyone changed and headed to the pool area. They had enough hats and sunglasses that they hoped nobody would recognize them. This was one of the many reasons Iruka was certainly happy to not be famous.

He got down in the pool for a few minutes, not even sure if he wanted to get his hair wet, before deciding that the covered spa seemed far more appealing right now.

Wandering over to the spa he found a nice lounging seat in the warm waters and enjoyed the company of Naruto and his friends from afar.

Not long after, Shikamaru came over to join him, "They're a bit exhausting," he explained before sitting back and relaxing with Iruka.

While they got to enjoy their afternoon, it wasn't long before they had to pack up and go back to the room to prepare for the rehearsal dinner.

Naruto raced to the private dining hall so he could be the first to see Hinata. There were only the essential people here for tonight, then tomorrow would be when the remaining guests got to see the bride and groom.

The wedding planner showed everyone how they were supposed to act for tomorrow's big ceremony, and Iruka got to meet his counterpart on Hinata's side, a young woman named Sakura with bright pink hair who must model with Hinata. As Naruto's best man he had a few expectations for the next day, he was supposed to hold onto Hinata's ring, dance with the maid of honor, and at some point give a big speech. He wasn't so fond of most of those things, but he was glad that he was the one to give Naruto the ring. No matter how much he liked all of Naruto's bandmates, he wasn't sure he could trust any of them to not make a mistake, like losing it.

After the mini rehearsal they had a nice dinner before separating to prepare for the next day. Iruka watched as Naruto gave Hinata a soft kiss and gave her a smile before joining Iruka to get to bed.

* * *

Today was the day.

The. Day.

Naruto was getting married today.

Iruka couldn't be more proud of his brother, and today he would do his best to fill in as not only an older brother, but as a parent too. Today would be the day where Iruka did everything in his power to not bawl his eyes out.

In their room they got dressed for the occasion. Each of them in suits with a hideous orange vest and tie.

Iruka wanted to laugh when he saw all of them together. It was Naruto's favorite color so there was nothing to be done about it, he could only enjoy what it was.

Naruto presented himself to Iruka to see how he looked. Dressed and all ready to head down to their spot in front of some of their closest friends and all of Hinata's family. Iruka pulled a piece of lint from Naruto's shoulder and straightened his tie.

"You look perfect."

Naruto came in for a bear hug and Iruka squeezed him right back. He had to straighten them both up again after that, but it was finally time.

Naruto and all his groomsmen took their place and waited for Hinata's bridesmaids to start the whole thing.

Iruka finally took in the audience. He'd been too busy making sure that everything was just right that he hadn't noticed one particular person who was looking at him instead of Naruto.

Iruka recognized the silvery grey hair and the piercing eyes, but he couldn't do anything because he heard the music start up that signified the bridesmaids’ entrance. He couldn't let himself get distracted now.

When Hinata started down the aisle he could see Naruto's already big smile grow impossibly larger. She was absolutely stunning.

He turned to follow her as she reached the altar and enjoyed watching her happy face as the ceremony started. Iruka couldn't help himself from glancing back to the audience to see if he had really seen who he thought he saw.

Only a few rows back on the side sitting in front of Hinata, Iruka saw Kakashi watching him. He could barely handle the look and had to turn back towards the ceremony. If Iruka got too distracted he wouldn't be able to do his job as best man.

He waited for them to start their vows and pulled the ring for Hinata out of his inner pocket and handed it to Naruto, as Hinata's maid of honor did the same.

With a pair of I do's and a kiss Hinata and Naruto were now married. The two linked arms and walked back down the aisle together. Sakura smiled at Iruka and they followed suit being the first to follow the newlywed couple.

After they signed the paperwork as witnesses to the marriage Iruka was pulled along with Naruto and Hinata for a handful of pictures. There were a few of Naruto and his groomsmen, and then a myriad of photos where Iruka stood with Naruto as his family. The last photo they took had all of Hinata's family on one side and a lone Iruka on the other, but Naruto just smiled and held Iruka close.

Iruka was finally released to go to the cocktail hour while Naruto and Hinata would go around and take even more photos.

Before Iruka even entered the room he was desperately searching to see where Kakashi had gone.

"Looking for someone?" the deep smooth voice asked him.

Iruka turned to see who he'd been looking for, "Kakashi..."

He didn't know how he was supposed to react to this. He didn't even know how Kakashi knew about the wedding, let alone how he was here.

"Hi," Kakashi replied. It answered nothing, but felt as if it meant everything.

"What? How? Why?" Iruka couldn't voice all the things that were going on in his mind. It was racing faster than he could speak.

Kakashi grabbed a glass from a waiter as they passed and handed it to Iruka as if to say 'take a breath'.

Iruka took the glass and took in a deep breath before drinking some of the wine inside.

"Naruto told me to come," Kakashi explained.

"Naruto?" Iruka was confused, he was certain his brother didn't like Kakashi.

"He called me yesterday morning and told me where you were. He said, if I was interested in you, if I had ever been interested in you, that I should come and fix this," Kakashi elaborated, "He also told me that if I hurt you I'd probably want to move. It was a bit threatening, but I could see it was because he cares about you."

Iruka was laughing and tearing up at the same time. He wasn't sure which was stronger, but between Naruto's insistence and Kakashi subtly admitting he was interested in Iruka, he couldn't figure out how to feel.

"I thought you..." Iruka couldn't even finish the sentence to ask Kakashi about the other man, but Kakashi seemed to pick up on it regardless.

"Iruka, that was my best friend. I wasn't lying when I told you I wasn't interested in anyone else."

"But you looked so happy..." Iruka couldn't quite jump over to Kakashi's side of the argument.

"I looked happy because I was telling him about you, and how much I liked you."

Iruka was stunned, "Me, but it was all faked."

"It was never fake for me Iruka," Kakashi insisted.

Iruka wanted to ask more, but Sakura started pulling him away, "I need to steal him, you should take your seat."

Naruto and Hinata had made it back from their photo session and the bridal party was gathering to help make their grand entrance. They gave the guests a few minutes to find their seats before they started dancing their way into the center of the room. Iruka forced a smile for everyone, still trying to process everything that Kakashi had told him. He easily found Kakashi's face in the crowd and it never seemed to leave him even when Naruto and Hinata were expected to be the center of attention.

The party sat down at their long head table looking out over the dance floor, and Iruka couldn't do much more than stare at Kakashi. He was elbowed by Naruto, "Toast?" he questioned, and Iruka jumped up glowing bright red realizing it was time for him to give his speech.

"Good evening everyone. Thank you all for coming to celebrate the marriage of Naruto and Hinata." Iruka let everyone cheer for the couple before he continued on.

"Most of you know me, but if you don't I'm Iruka, and I grew up getting to call this rambunctious boy my brother. When I say brother, you know that we aren't related by blood, but his parents took me in when I was a teenager and I couldn't have asked for a better family. We were already close but death has a way of changing the relationships you have and we went through that together twice." Iruka felt Naruto grab his hand and squeeze it.

"Naruto has always been a bit overwhelming to those that aren't used to him, but he brings in so many good people with his light. He hasn't changed one bit from when he was little, the only thing is that he's on stage instead of getting into trouble, and I'm no longer getting called by the principal's office." Everyone laughed with him.

"Growing up he met some wonderful people," Iruka gestured to the rest of the groomsmen, "and became more famous than anyone probably wants to be. But it was that fame and ambition that brought him to Hinata. Hinata is intelligent and beautiful and although I don't know how the two of them work together, I can say that they are one of the best couples I have ever known, and I couldn't ask for a better partner for Naruto. They make each other smile, which is the greatest thing in the world, especially when you know how precious both of their smiles are. Hinata hasn't been around our lives long, but I knew she was the right one for Naruto when he told me they were engaged. So I stand here as Naruto's brother, father...and mother, for those who know me well, and say Thank You for being friends and family over the years. I look forward to growing our tiny family with the many new relatives that have come with this marriage."

"Cheers!" someone yelled across the room, and Iruka laughed lifting his glass up in toast to Naruto and Hinata.

Sakura stood up on Hinata's side to talk about them and how they found out about Naruto, but Iruka started to tune it all out. He still couldn't pull his eyes away Kakashi even through the rest of dinner. They were all expected to stay in their seats until the first dance, but Iruka was impatient to slip away. Hinata and Naruto were the first on the dance floor, then the bridal party paired off and started dancing with them.

"You seem a bit distracted Iruka," Sakura asked as they swayed side to side with the rest of the group.

"Huh?" Iruka questioned, "Ohh, I just wanted to talk to someone a little more," he said looking to where Kakashi was sitting.

They turned a little more and Sakura was able to see who he was talking about, "Ahh, well I won't keep you long."

When other couples finally joined the dance floor, she thanked him for the dance, but encouraged him to go.

Iruka smiled and walked off the dance floor with a subtle nod to Kakashi to follow him.

"Now where were we?" Iruka asked standing in the secluded hallway.

"I said I had never faked my feelings for you," Kakashi reminded him.

"Right..." Iruka mouthed, watching Kakashi in awe as he thought about that statement.

"Iruka, I liked you from the first day you started as my assistant," he admitted, "I probably should have tried to let it go, but I didn't want to."

"Since then?" Iruka wasn't sure he could believe him, "It's been almost 3 years?"

Kakashi nodded, "I wanted to say something, but I couldn't."

"Why didn't you ask me out?" Iruka had to wonder. He knew that office relationships weren't good, but this one could have been.

"And what was I supposed to do if you said no, or it went badly?" Kakashi questioned, bringing up the logical question. "You have to admit this last week was pretty rough."

"Yeah it was. I don't know, I guess you could have fired me?" Iruka offered.

They both laughed. Iruka knew that few people would handle his work as well as him particularly when it came to Kakashi.

"Look Iruka, I'm sorry I took advantage of your situation for my own gain, it wasn't right."

Iruka sighed, "I can't be mad, I liked you too and feel like I used it selfishly too."

They smiled at each other.

"So, Iruka," Kakashi started, "Would you like to date me? For real this time."

"I'd love that..."

Kakashi leaned over for a kiss. Iruka had missed this. It was nice to actually kiss him without feeling guilty about what they were or weren't. This time they could just kiss and be happy with each other.

Iruka led Kakashi back to the dance floor where he could dance with his new boyfriend.

Boyfriend...It was nice to say that.

He could feel eyes on him, and he looked to see Naruto and Hinata watching and smiling at him. Naruto gave him a thumbs up and he just laughed at his brother.

They stayed at the wedding for as long as Iruka could handle, but they snuck away hoping nobody would notice they were gone.

Kakashi led them to his room and invited Iruka in. They put up the Do Not Disturb sign and closed the door hoping that from now on they could keep their private life secret instead of out for the world to see.

**Author's Note:**

> And there it is folks, 25k+ story.  
> Wow was that a lot of focused writing to get it all down, but it's done.  
> Inspired by Her Private Life Kdrama.  
> This story veers very differently, but that show gave me the spark for the storyline and some of the small details. If you like kdrama I would also totally recommend it.
> 
> Beautiful art by [SqueakyNinja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SqueakyNinja/pseuds/SqueakyNinja) and [ Artnica ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23778391)


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